The world today is in a lockdown and under quarantine. Millions across the world are confined to their homes, travel is restricted, streets are deserted, businesses are closed, schools are suspended, supplies are running short and morgues are full of dead bodies. Many have lost their livelihoods, their loved ones and their sense of security. A sense of fear and uncertainty is grappling the world. Like many others, I have been confined and working from home for weeks. Like everyone else, I feel sad for what is happening, but not surprised or taken aback. This isn’t my first experience with such a lockdown, I have seen it before and experienced it firsthand, not for weeks or months but for years. During my teens my native city, Asmara, was in a human made “lockdown” that turned it from a bustling city into a ghost town!

A glimmer of hope that turned into a nightmare

The 1974 Ethiopian coup that ended Haile Selassie’s imperial rule brought hopes of positive reforms and peaceful end to the conflict in Eritrea. The ascension of General “Aman Andom”, an Eritrean, to the position of Chairman of the Provisional Military Administrative Council (Derg), gave greater hope to many Eritreans. General “Aman Andom” visited Eritrea; he spoke in a public gathering in the main stadium “Cicero”. His speech was positive and raised expectations. There was greater freedom of political expressions and much ease in political tension. People were openly talking about politics, freedom and liberation. In every corner of Asmara, you would hear the echo of the popular song of “Yemane”:

O you passerby, if you see my darling convey my greeting to her!
I see her curtailed by the mountain
I miss her a lot, my darling, is she well and safe?!

Everybody understood the “darling” was a code word for freedom. The Eritrean liberations movements (both Shabia and Jebha) were in the Hamasen region, in walking distances from Asmara. With the new wave of political ease, residents of Asmara were flocking to the outskirts of Asmara to meet the young fighters of the liberation movements and chat with them. Many young Asmarinos joined the struggle at this time. There was a buzz in Asmara about going out and meeting these fighters.

On a sunny Sunday morning, I left Asmara with my friends to see the fighters in the area of “Tsaazega”, few hours walk on foot from Asmara. As we left the city, we were looking for a guide, but to our surprise, we realized we weren’t in need of a guide, lots of people were making the same journey. Everywhere villagers were joyfully greeting us, mothers were shouting “Ajokhum ezom dekei”- be courageous my children. We arrived at “Tsaazega”, the typically quite village sounded like a marketplace, full of hundreds of visitors from Asmara. We saw a long line of Asmarino youth wanting to join the struggle. The commanders of the liberation movement were overwhelmed, and they had to turn back many of the young. Those who were accepted were jubilant and those who were turned back were tearful. It was a moment of high nationalistic fervour.

Two fighters come to speak to the huge crowd about the struggle and the dream of liberation. As we were gathered in the open field, we saw a bus coming, carrying some dignitaries from Asmara. I could

recognize two faces, the principal of “Jalia” school, Ustaz Saleh Hamed(1) and Mohamed Saeed A. Basheer, an official in the department of education. The dignitaries were met by the liberation commanders and were taken to a meeting place. We were told they were part of a mediation committee sent by the government. By the end of the day people were flocking back to Asmara in hundreds. As we were getting close to Asmara, we received warning of potential arrests and thus we had to take a different route to Asmara. This was an ominous sign of a changing mood within the ruling establishment. In Addis Ababa, the tone of the revolution was changing, the power struggle between the leaders of the coup was intensifying. General Aman Andom was becoming marginalized and eventually he was assassinated. There was a new tripartite leadership in Ethiopia, Teferi Bante, Atnafu Abate and Mengistu Hailemariam. A new slogan was proclaimed “Ethiopia Tekdem” -Ethiopia first- and it was reverberating across the nation.

The fateful Friday night!

The mood in Asmara was changing and stories of disappearances were emerging. One particular incident shock the city. A man known as Omar Hangale and few other men in his company were taken from home by government agents, in the night of the Muslim celebration of Eid Al-Adha. They were assassinated the same night and their bodies were found outside the Asmara stadium in the early morning of Eid Al-Adha. My elementary math and English teacher, Ustaz Mohamed Ali, was one of them.

Despite this creeping terror, Asmara was still a bustling city. The markets were busy, food supplies were abundant, villagers were bringing their farm products and live stocks and selling them in the markets. The most important street in Asmara, “Comishtato” was crowded with the young, the Italian style cafes around the street were full of people, movie theatres were busy showing Indian and Italian movies. Foreigners of all nationalities, Hadhrami Yemenis, Italians, and Indians could be seen running their businesses and enjoying their prosperous lives. The out of town bus stations (the Aberra and Haragot buses) were busy transporting people across Eritrea. As young people, we freely played soccer in the fields, chatted in the corners of the neighbourhoods, wandered around the streets of Asmara, biked to the beautiful surroundings of “Beleza”, “Arbi-Rebou”, Mai-Nefhi, etc. Schools were full of students, streets were full of street-vendors, comedians (such as “Zegenfo”, “Ababo”), and unfortunately many beggars and homeless. Soccer fans of the major teams, “Hamasen”, “Akeleguzai”, “Marroso” filled the main stadium and their team clubs were bustling. The “Bar Danadai” was full of its Italian patrons and the sounds of the rolling bowling balls can be heard loud across the neighbourhoods.

In a sudden change of fate, my bustling city Asmara came to a stand still and eventually turned into a ghost town. It was a typical Friday in Asmara, people were busy with their livelihood, in the evening “Comishtato” street was busy as usual. As night descended, the quite evening was suddenly shaken by unprecedented sounds of bombs and gun fires that lasted for hours into the night. By dawn the gun fire subsided, the residents of Asmara were deeply shaken. On Saturday morning people left their homes cautiously to go to work and school. Until noon time, the city was quiet, but shortly after, soldiers were seen in the streets, there was heavy shooting everywhere, people were scrambling to find a place to hide. The city streets were deserted, only soldiers, their green jeeps, and huge trucks could be seen. A 6 AM to 6 PM curfew “coprifuoco” was imposed in Asmara, travel was banned, and schools were closed. Stories were emerging of many innocent residents of the city being killed by the soldiers in an apparent “revenge”, including many homeless; shops were looted, particularly the gold shops.

New waves of young soldiers were seen arriving in Asmara, aerial bombardments in the surrounding of Asmara can be heard. The radio was becoming very militant. Every day there was a new decree. Electricity was completely cut off from Asmara probably for more than a year, there was sever shortage of food, water and supplies, the city was becoming a ghost town. All foreigners abandoned the city, leaving their homes and businesses closed. Natives of Asmara were sneaking out on foot, donkeys and camels and going to their villages. Many young people left the city to join the armed struggle or take refuge in Sudan. Those who stayed were becoming lonely. Parents were struggling to keep their children at home, for fear of being kidnapped or killed in the street. Walking in the street was a frightening experience. Sudden gunfire and shooting was becoming a daily occurrence. A new terror group known as “Affan” was unleashed in Asmara, they were seen criss-crossing the city with their Volkswagen vans, kidnapping people, particularly the young. Another terror group, a militia, was let loose in Asmara. They were known as “Nech-Lebash”, they terrorised people, stole properties and killed many. Nightly death squads were terrorizing families and
liquidating their loves ones in cold blood. Bicycles were completely banned. Fear was everywhere, my city was in a grip of a vicious menace.

Studying under terror!

After almost two years, the schools were reopened. My school that used to be crowded to capacity, was half empty. Many of our teachers didn’t come back. Going back and forth to school was a risky venture. With the “Affan” roaming the street and sudden gun shooting, the danger was real. The school curriculum was overhauled and many of the teachers were new. Marxism became the new ideology of the state. New heroes were introduced to us. Marx, Angles, Lenin, Mao, and “Che” Guevara, became the new role models. Long forgotten were the heroes of the Haile Selassie era school curriculum, Atze Tedros, Ras Alula, Aba Tecklehaimanot, etc. They were deemed to be feudalists and reactionaries. Our teachers were Marxist zealots and ardent atheists who publicly attacked religion and any religious practices. There was mistrust and fear in the classrooms. Some students were suspected of being spies of the government and some teachers were believed to be members of nightly death squads.

Bidding farewell!

The people of Asmara were resilient and creative. They found ways of coping with shortages and circumventing government restrictions. The only lifeline for Asmara was the huge army protected convey from Massawa that brought the much needed supplies. Despite the fear, the shortages, the pain, the loss of loved ones, and the never ending grief, the people of Asmara were in high spirits. Most of the cities in Eritrea were liberated and under the control of Jebha or Shabia. The people of Asmara were anxiously waiting for Asmara to be liberated and to see the end of their nightmare.

The exodus of the youth continued unabated; every parent was looking for ways to smuggle their children out of Asmara. Many of my friends left the city, I was waiting for my turn. Eventually my turn came, and I departed my beloved city with mixed emotions of sadness and relief. I never entertained the idea of living anywhere else other than Asmara. I bid farewell to Asmara, feeling deep in my heart that I shall come back soon, to live in it free of fear, oppression, and tyranny!

1 Ustaz Saleh Hamed is believed to have been kidnapped later by the “Affan” and secretly liquidated with no traces.

Hi All; I have no idea why PIA had the need to go to Ethiopia in the middle of WUSHEBA but I got to believe something urgent matter. In the past, I couldn’t figure out I was at lose why when a new system comes in Africa must destroy the previous one. Why can’t just talk and deal peacefully. Well, thanks to Ethiopia all my questions and wonders answered. When PMAA came to power by hacking the TPLF software; he brought every opposition and all off-postion Ethiopians in to the capital city of the country. Although, I agree with PMAA ideas to bring the opposition but it was wrong to let them in without restrictions and regulations of the government. Omitting all the fiasco that happened in Ethiopia, things are becoming clear there will be serious problems ahead. TPLF wants to hold its own election, I have no idea what that means and Jawar and Lidetu; are joined up, the two with opposite views are teaming in demanding the election must be held on the end of Meskerem. To speak political smack and demand something is not the problem but to say, “if election doesn’t happen Meskerem-30th then there will be no military, no police and no one is to takes orders from the prime minster” I mean this is serious and dangerous. At one point in a near future, there will be a power struggle and one must eliminate the other. Now I know why when a new system comes must destroy the old. If PMAA had cleaned the house when he has all that support and political currency, this brewing danger could have been avoided. I suspect; on this coming trying times for PMAA; PIA’s service was needed to attend personally through this Coronavirus craziness. PIA will do anything to protect PMAA’s power.

We can never forgive ‘ጻብዕታዊ* ወያነ for spreading the rumor—-the death of Isaias Afwerk’s when he is in fact alive and well. This morning, Yemane Charlie twitted saying that, President Isaias Afwerki departed today for Addis for a bilateral meeting with PM Abiy Ahmed. Oh well, lesson learned.

*Digits obviously mean fingers.

Ismail AA

Selam Dr. Paulos,

You, I and the rest should not blame ‘ጻብዕታዊ* ወያነ’. Those people did what their launchers wanted them to do. All of us should blame those who wittingly or otherwise fell prey to them and frantically oiled their rumor mongering machine. Saddly, the virus rumor mongering infected mainly those who seem to have been infected by the virus of fatalism – waiting for Creator’s intervention to collect his creation! ( the dictator) – instead of playing role to create reasons for God to intervene. Even some hitherto respected organizations jumped on the bandwagon of those ‘ጻብዕታዊ’. That is sad, is it not !.

Berhe Y

Hi Ismail,

I don’t think it’s what happened to him that they cared so much but what will happen to Eritrea after him. They think Eritrea is prize that needs to grabbed what ever pieces they can get ahold off.

SJG said, and he traced the source of that rumour to be Tigrayonline or something. He said, this is not misinformation anymore but disinformation.

The whole religio/region m, ethnic chaq chaq, and this Tamara Negra thing is a continuation of their plans.

Berhe

Ismail AA

Selam Berhe Y,

Correct. Concern about the mess the disappearance of the despot could leave behind supersedes what could happen to him. This is most of the time the case when authoritarian autocrats leave the scene in one way or the other. It could open the gate of a cage of secluded wolves. But, my point was why some quarters had fallen to what Saleh Johar had traced, and oiled that machine of rumor mongering, despite such things had in fact happened in the very recent past.

Berhe Y

Hi Ismail,

Considering his age and his health condition from the past (I think there was some us cable report), and his heavy drinking habits, it’s not hard to speculate.
I think there are some Eritreans who got caught in the rumours and may be the fall for it, but it is likely to happen rather not if one is to bet on it.

I think there are Eritreans who are part and parcel of that disinformation machinery for what ever their motivation might be, who are actively promoting that agenda, of chaos and division.

But I think most importantly, what is that we should do to prepare for that day, at least what’s expected of us, because it will happen sooner or later and how should we prepared for it. I believe the very most majority, 99% of us are on the same page and we should be ready to defuse the attack that will come from the very few.

What I mean is, we should have a talking point, united response that we are not falling for their plans.

I actually think they are preparing for something else worse where it involves violence while they are keeping us busy and distracted with daily and constant disinformation.

Berhe

Ismail AA

Dear Berhe,
You are absolutely correct. What you have noted should in fact be an across the board contingency priority number one.

Sultan M.G.

Ya Ustazna Ismael Wo Berhe.
The core issue and multimillion $$ question are :
-What have we done?
-What are we doing?
-What shall/ should we do ?
The Digital WeyAne,which is created, fully funded and backed up by its engineer, the TPLF , has been doing a “ superb job” in a well coordinated and organized way against Eritrea and Eritreans!

Have we done any to counter them, other than blaming the PFDJ and being their victims and adding spices to their toxic propaganda?
Mahmuday et al should resume their cyber-war against the TPLF and its Digital Wing

Abi

Hello King Sultan
I tell you what you have been doing lately. You attacked Tamirat Negera as if he was the sole orchestrater of the whole drama. You remember the “ Amhara wannabe “ comments flying left and right? አህያውን ፈርቶ ዳውላውን አይነት ነገር:: You are slowly catching up.

Ismail AA

Selam M.G.,

I think this is first time for me to comment on your comments, unless of course an you are an old timer here in the forum and now joining in with a new avatar and nickname.

A quick response to your question is in fact a counter question: Whom should we blame for what has befallen the country other than the PFDJ? The matter stretches from what you had referred as “Digital WeyAne” down to almost four or more decades back. The ordeal Eritreans have been enduring, and still are suffering from, has had a history of its own. Even answers or lack of them to your three questions should be blamed to the dictatorship and its journey to what it has matured to. The issue is much bigger than the rumour machine and its role.

Sultan M.G.

Selam Ya Ustazna:
Just focus on the message, not on the messenger.
Not surprised to read a classic Opposition style response.
My questions were NOT about praising or Criticizing the PFDJ since we/I have accused of and even demonized the EPRP/Secret EPLF party Leadership publicly .
Am talking about the other obvious enemy of Eritrea and Eritreans, the subject matter of the topic.
Focus on answering my focused questions on the TPLF and its toxic propaganda machine, the Digital WeyAne .

Ismail AA

Selam Sultan,

Let us leave it there. Classic or neo, that was a point of view. Determing who the enemy of the Eritrean people is, and detrimental to their supreme interest, is a matter of judgmental priority. What you are talking as digital TPLF was at one time in an impeccable love with what had morphed to a deadly dictatorship.
And thanks for engaging anyway.

Sultan M.G.

Selam Ustaz Isamael:
I cannot leave it there coz you are provoking further to debate more .
No one ever denied the sad and destructive story of the joint EPLF-TPLF operation against the ELF.
Let me rephrase what I tried to say.

In many ways, my point was,that as much the same EPLF Leadership contributed to our mess in direct partnership with the TPLF,the same TPLF has caused same or more damage to Eritrea now through an indirect partnership thru its “partnership-in-crime“ with the PFDJ for the last 20 yrs besides directly damaging its own old X-Partner, the PFDJ!
Hence, we have to criticize and fight both enemies equally!

Ismail AA

Selam Sultan,
Fair enough; and there is no dispute on your view as set in this entry. Thanks again.

Greetings
According to the Washington Post, the COVID 19 virus is “ little more than a packet of genetic material surrounded by a spiky protein shell one-thousandth the width of an eyelash, and it leads such a zombielike existence that it’s barely considered a living organism. But as soon as it gets into a human airway, the virus hijacks our cells to create millions more versions of itself.”

Pretty ironic eh? Our doomsday scenarios often involve nuclear war, zombie humans, space alien invasion, asteroid impact, supervolcanic eruption, solar flares and the like. Stuff we can see and maybe find a way to divert or defeat or avoid. Now along comes this invisible, unpredictable, indiscriminate killer. And in weeks, it brings the whole world to a near standstill. It is truly bizarre.
there are currently more than 56,000 COVID-19 fatalities in the US in a month and a halfThe coronavirus has produced pain, suffering, and immense loss.Divided societies are always in need for healing and reconciliation. Martin Luther King Jr.’s question “Where do we go from here?”

Neoliberal austerity, and starving governments of money , Well over 30 million Americans are now suddenly unemployed, first of all, the economy wasn’t doing well. Before we heard about COVID-19.The White House has not shown any empathy for the victims,US don’t have a health care system that can respond quickly. All this blaming China…

There was a very sad story in the Times last week. A man who owned a bar in Brooklyn passed away from COVID and his daughter said, if Sean Hannity had told him to wear a mask, he would’ve worn one.

The US President maintains a filthy racist mind despite all false appearances of trying to look and act Presidential at the time of the management of a devastating Coronavirus Crisis.

After a long period of denial losing valuable time of preparedness to fight the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, in his most infantile whimsical and impetuous fashion, tweeted yesterday most untimely slur labeling the “Coronavirus” that he once called a “Foreign Virus” as the “Chinese Virus.”

Donald Trump singularly motivated by his political career rather the genuine wellbeing of the nation, let alone humanity at large, is trying to act solo shutting off any mode of cooperation, consultation and coordination for the management of a universal crisis with countries stricken by the Coronavirus epidemic by trying to compare notes trying to learn from these countries’ experiences, in particular the Chinese, on how best to contain the fast spread of the virus by learning the deployment of new approaches and new methods of containing an epidemic.

In this vein, the Chinese have a great deal to offer in their most impressive success story in containing the spread of the Coronavirus with exemplary planning, deployment and the mobilization of the requisite resources for the most effective containment management of the spread of the Coronavirus. Instead, the xenophobe moron in the oval office is dwelling on his penchant White Supremacist streak of circulating slurs and bad-mouthing nations despite the humbling challenges currently bedeviling the Americans with the unstoppable spread of the Coronavirus and the US’ apparent inability to effectively contain the disease.

However, true to himself, the President of the World Super Power is instead reverting to the propagation of slurs, name calling and most undiplomatic demeaning verbiage attacking sovereign nations, as the case with China. The US President’s customary slurs that do not seem to differentiate him from the uncouth hoodlums comprising part of the President’s committed followers.
As the Chinese leadership acted all along as responsible statesmen extending hands and readily sharing their learned experiences of the effective management of the coronavirus crisis, seeing Chinese experts flying to ravaged Italy to extend a hand, and, as of yesterday, providing France in a noble gesture with the supply free of charge of a million masks to help the French cope with their Coronavirus ordeal; the US President, rather in a huge contrast with the Chinese leadership, continues on his daily chains of tweets that are very obstructive and at times grossly misleading as in statements like his latest professing that testing for the coronavirus is expanding while labs across the US are complaining of being short on tests because they are missing key parts.

Trump continues to play low politics acting increasingly delusional in his single purpose mind eyeing approaching re-election, failing to truly and genuinely act Presidential throwing his tweeted slurs left and right at most wrenching time of a real national crisis demanding sane and assuring an inspiring sense of responsible leadership.

Besides, with The number of the infected people by the Coronavirus and number of deaths caused by the disease in Iran that are dramatically mounting by the day, the White Supremacist moron in the Oval Office .This, in lieu of the President of the World Superpower acting humanely at a time of the spread of the wanton calamity .
One cannot easily overlook the mockery of a sissy US President who is seriously delinquent in the performance of the Trump Administration’s duties at most devastating national crisis, the Coronavirus epidemic, insists on displaying his racism in the most flagrant open fashion as a coverup for the US Federal Government’s terrible failure in preparing long ahead to fight the spread of the Coronavirus Epidemic and inability to marshal the needed medical resources as demonstrated by a number of testimonies as below by the nation’s governors and mayors complaining of serious hospitals’ shortage of essential Medical Supplies and Equipment.
The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, the largest populated state, went as far as expressing alarm embracing the eventuality that 25 million Californians, 60% of the Californian total population, are expected to be infected with the Coronavirus the next 8 weeks.
The deranged compulsive liar President carries on with the exhibit show of daily Task Force briefings spreading lies and misplaced optimistic medical news, beside the spreading of slurs and vehemently reprimanding and attacking news reporters, a “Show Biz” of Hail the Chief, Praise the Lord Mockery by Donald Trump’s staff and ministers.

A research dossier compiled by the so-called “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance states that China intentionally hid or destroyed evidence of the coronavirus outbreak, leading to the loss of tens of thousands of lives around the world

The 15-page document from the intelligence agencies of the U.S., Canada, the U.K.,
Australia and New Zealand, was obtained by Australia’s Saturday Telegraph newspaper and states that China’s secrecy amounted to an “assault on international transparency.”

The dossier touches on themes that have been discussed in media reports about the
outbreak of the virus, including an initial denial by China that the virus could be transmitted between humans, the silencing or “disappearing” of doctors who tried to speak up, the
destruction of evidence in laboratories and refusal to provide live samples to international scientists working on a vaccine.

Specifically, the file notes that China began censoring news of the virus on search engines and social media beginning Dec. 31, deleting terms including “SARS variation,” “Wuhan Seafood market” and “Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia.”

Three days later, on Jan. 3, China’s National Health Commission ordered virus samples to
be either moved to designated testing facilities or destroyed, while simultaneously issuing a “no-publication order” related to the disease.

The Saturday Telegraph report includes a timeline of Chinese obfuscation. On Jan. 5, for example, Wuhan’s Municipal Health Commission stopped releasing daily updates on the number of new cases and would not resume them for 13 days. On Jan. 10, Wang Guanga, a respiratory specialist at Peking University First Hospital who had been investigating the

outbreak, said it was “under control” and largely a “mild condition.” (Wang himself would disclose 12 days later that he had been infected with the virus.)

Two days later, on Jan. 12, a Shanghai professor’s lab was closed down after it shared
data on the virus’ genetic sequence with the outside world. On Jan. 24, Chinese officials stopped the Wuhan Institute of Virology from sharing virus samples with a lab at the University of Texas.

Perhaps most damningly, the dossier states that Chinese authorities denied that the virus could be spread between humans until Jan. 20, “despite evidence of human-human transmission from early December.”

The file is similarly unsparing about the World Health Organization (WHO), stating that it toed the Chinese line about human-to-human transmission despite the fact that “officials in Taiwan raised concerns as early as December 31, as did experts in Hong Kong on
January 4.”

As of Friday night, the WHO’s official Twitter account still featured a tweet from Jan. 14 that stated: “Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China.”

The dossier goes on to state that throughout February, “Beijing pressed the USA, Italy, India, Australia, Southeast Asian neighbours and others not to protect themselves via travel restrictions, even as China imposed severe restrictions at home.”

At the same time, the file states: “Millions of people left Wuhan after the outbreak and before Beijing locked down the city on January 23.”

Similarly, “As Australia calls for an independent inquiry into the pandemic, China threatens to cut off trade with Australia. China has likewise responded furiously to USA calls for transparency.”

The Saturday Telegraph report does present one apparent point of divergence between the allied governments, with Australia believing the coronavirus most likely originated in the Wuhan wet market and putting the chances it accidentally leaked from a lab at “5 percent.”

By contrast, the U.S. intelligence officials are increasingly confident that coronavirus likely originated in a Wuhan lab as a consequence of China’s attempt to demonstrate that its
efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States.

You made feel that, either you are Trump or his agents/surrogates from the Fox News!

Put aside politics and here the FACTS so far:

-The COVID-19 is not a human made one neither is a genetically engineered one!

-There are plenty of circumstantial and even scientific evidence that the virus could have been transmitted from animals to human beings .

-Contrary to your fake or an Unscientific Research Dossier’s assertion , which is yet to be confirmed or to be verified,the USA Intelligence Community fully backed up by the REAL SCIENCE, rejected your allegation

-China repeatedly( 30x) warned the USA in Jan and its Intelligence Community about the potential danger of the pandemic of the COVID-19

-The Trump Adm IGNORED that stern WARNING and belittled the danger of the pandemic saying openly that” The USA is safe; the 15 cases will go down to ZERO;It will disappear like a miracle”!!!!

-The Trump Adm deliberately has dragged its feet from taking aggressive preventative measures by learning from the same China and S Korea.

-The Trump Adm repeatedly IGNORED the warnings and the advice of its top Officials like Navarro and the its TOP Scientists and Public Health Officials.

-The Trump Adm has been indirectly and practically advocating for banning Social( Physical ) Distancing and Stay-@Home Orders”,as we speak fully backed up by it’s de facto Lead Media,the Fox News !

Look at,and listen to,what Trump just said supporting the Armed KKK Gang in Michigan threatening the poor Governor just for being a Democrat, who is trying to save lives!

And yet, Simon has no courage or gut to report on those facts!

Of course,China is responsible for lots of things being the source of these preventable Pandemics due to its negligence about the devastating roles of its so called Wet Markets.

It is possible that China might have tried to cover up things to avoid its weakness or to avoid embarrassment of its mishandling of the pandemic but it is an uncalled for to spread rumors for a secondary gain , the Fox News and the Trump style ….

Paulos

Capo,

The guy is so into China. Not sure why. I suspect, በየነ ካራቲስታ* might have kicked his azz when he ventured into ገዛባንዳ without his permission which was his personal fiefdom.

*ማሃንድሳይ will tell you who በየነ ካራቲስታ was if you don’t know him or never heard of him.

The family, to the very least, him and his younger brother and a sister were ካዚኒስቲ. I specifically remember the day he lost one of his eyes where it was in a nasty brawl at ፓታማታ. It was crazy of times when Asmara was divided between gang members including the nasty ደቂ ቃኘው who were mostly sons of Dergue soldiers. But of course, the contention that would lead to a nasty fight was about them gals who would get hit on by ደቂ ቃኘው and bad as*ses ደቂ ማይተመናይ would protect the gals.

But of course, it had political angle to it where ደቂ ቃኘው were seen for obvious reasons as enemies and invaders. And there were party of one solo gangistas as in ኣያይ’ዶ and ወዲ-ሑጻ who would hustle those who were ደቂ ዕንዳታት as a form of extortion or in an exchange for protection from other gangs. Sure one can write a full story about it. In a way, it was the best of times as well.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Doterre,
Speaking of that, my brother-in-law was one of those guys used to fight against those ደቂ ቃኘው gangs. I only knew him by his nick at a time but few years forward, he became family 🙂
I remember one day the fight erupts in front of Comboni and it was huge fighting. It resulted in so many Comboni high schoolers in jail, including my future brother-in-law. He didn’t go to Comboni but he was there with his gangs.

Paulos

ኢንጂኔረ,

ሎሚ’ኻኣ ሓደ Gang-leader against the entire people ይህውኽ ኣሎ!

Thing is though, we’ve never come to this kind of intense situation before where rumours of his absence would disappear into the thin air in a week or so before he reappears. But this time around, it gives you a creepy vibe–reminiscent of the last days of Mengistu. Everybody was on the edge as we are today. Something serious is definitely going on. I have a feeling Gedab News will come up with something.

Paul
As Dickens put it “ It Was the Best of times; It Was the Worst of Times “. The Tell of Two Cities.
I agree with you.

Simon Kaleab

MM,

“ጥዕና ዘለዎ ምሁር ሰብ ንትራምፕ ዝድግፍ”

Says who?

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Happy Sunday, Simon!
I admit, I was praising Isayas, before I know who really is. My info at that time was almost all from the Unknown 03 [at that time]. Now, with all the available info, I figured it out [like millions of Eritreans] how deceptive he is and I dropped him into the toilet.

The question is, with all this available info about tRump, you are still defending him.
Are you going to blame Obama for COVID-19 too?
Speaking of the herd mentality, were you thinking of those so called deplorables [if I may borrow Hillary’s unwise word]?

Simon Kaleab

Selam MM,

What went on in the World/Eritrean guerrilla movements is well known: regionalism, ganging up, double crossing, betrayal, incarceration, murder, assassination.

If you allowed yourself to deceived, may be you deserve what you have in Eritrea.

It interesting that you quote crooked Hillary. Can you list your available info about Trump? You must cite reliable sources.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Selamat Simon,
As soon as I knew what you have listed above, I stopped supporting the devil and his hgdf party. Anything before that was from lack true information.
List on tRump’s COVID-19 statements, please see the link. The source for most of these statements, just to make you happy, they are his own:https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-statements-about-the-coronavirus/

Simon Kaleab

Selam MM,

Assuming what the website lists about Trump is true, what I found is nothing but harmless, optimistic musings. In all matters of policy related to the made in China virus, Trump has strictly followed the advice of experts.

Is this your best shot?

On the other hand, you supported a sinister organization for most of your life, now giving a lame excuse.

I would say almost the whole nation was supporting EPLF [after Jebha’s unfortunate disappearance from the field].

Just curious, did you vote for Eritrea’s independence?

Simon Kaleab

Selam MM,

Trump was the only president to confront China for its abuse of the World economic system.

Using diplomatic language while in the middle of trade negotiations is not a crime.

But when the true extent of China’s deception on the virus was revealed, Trump’s actions speak louder than words.

You are now quoting the loony leftist Politico. This must be your worst shot. But a pattern is emerging.

I voted for ‘Paradise on Earth Eritrea’ to separate from Ethiopia.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Selamat Simon,
That makes you a supporter, just like the rest of us! So, the same blame goes to you as well.
Your buddy tRump has no principle btw. He is just a flip-flopper. He praises Xi now and 2 hrs later blames him, for the exact subject.

ኣብ ናይ ሎሚ ኣርእስቲ: ንከይንሰማማዕ ተሰማሚዕና መስለኒ። ኣብ ካልእ ዛዕባ ስጋብ ንራኸብ: ብሰላም ዕረፍ።

Simon Kaleab

Selam MM,

Saying “…just like the rest of us” is a logical fallacy.

Saying “Trump has no principle” is a lie. In addition, this topic is above my and your pay grade. Try to be modest.

Sultan M.G.

Simon:
Mr I know it all, can U lecture us also about the destructive economic, diplomatic and military policies and hegemonies on /against the innocent nations by your fav empire?

Simon Kaleab

Sultan,

You are free to relocate to China.

You will have free Snake barbecue, grilled Bat, Dog’s ear and baby Crocodile tail soup for breakfast every morning.

Simon Kaleab

Paulos,

Is that the best you can say, Mr childish and attention seeker?

Sultan M.G.

Selam Simon:
Dude:
Respect and decency , please!
A “childish and attention seeker” cannot achieve a PHD in the toughest Science
The multi-talented and an articulate brain in all Sciences, Philosophy, Linguistics and Arts as evidenced here obviously cannot own a brain of a child!.

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

Mumbo Jumbo, waste of space and time.

Sultan M.G.

Ayte Simon:
Ere BesiMe Ab bele Amharay!
Facts and truth are mumbo-jumbo in Ayte Simon’s world!
Just try a little bit to refute even a single fact of the list.

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

Try to fix Eritrea first, it is on fire.

Sorry, I forgot you are a member of ‘Mahber Wudase’ of the regime.

Sultan M.G.

Simon:
We are talking about America and as a US Citizen, not about Ertra or Eri business!
What the heck has our topic to do with Mahber Wudasie?
When cornered, u rush into twisting things and topics and vulgar language .

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

You claim to be a medic from some 3rd rate University. Fix Eritrea first before try to fix America. Once a loser, always a loser.

Turn on CNN and listen to Tappets Investigative Report as we speak!
You are the”Third Grade Reporter”,said Trump to the ABC’s Jon, the President of the Association of the White House Reporters, a famous Journalist.

A loser?

You sound like your President, who is claimed to have a 4th or 6th Grade IQ( per his own Chief of Staff.

Btw, did u see the CDC’s lame, cowardly and unscientific CDC Recommendations due to Trump’s threats to the CDC Director, who tried to tell the truth?
Trump and the current CDC Director have made the CDC, the most organized and the best world renowned Scientific Institution had become a “ Third Rate” Institution ….

A Medic from a “Third Rate university”??
So the AAU/the GCMS,The McGill Univ, the Tel Aviv Univ, the Howard Univ,the Boston Univ, the NIH, the Cleveland Clinic, the Mayo Clinic,etc…are third rate universities!

You sound to be the LOSER of the losers!!

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

Any evidence that you went to those institutions?

You are a volatile character. You could have been to those places as a guard or as a patient.

Sultan M.G.

Sir:
It is a public info and U can directly contact the:
-Tel Aviv Univ
-The McGill univ along with the AAU
-The Tulane Univ
-The Cleveland and the Mayo Clinic’s
Etc.. ..
But who the heck are you though to convince u other than a “third rate Dude”!?

Simon Kaleab

Sultan-Hope,

Post a copy on this website.

Sultan M.G.

Selam Ayte Simon:
After you post yours!
Who do you think you are ,beyond a Third Rate Dude / Robot?
You have no moral ground to question the credentials of others let alone that of the well credentialed and top rated intellectuals and professionals, who are credentialed by top rated Institutions in the world, if you want to know the TRUTH!

Sultan M.G.

Ayte Simon:
No,am not a MEDIC but “ actually a Medical College Drop out Loser”, if that will make you a Happy Camper Mr Third Rated LOST SOUL!
Hope u will sleep well tonight!

Sultan M.G.

Simon:
Did u know that today Trump blocked Dr Tony Fauci from testifying to the Congress/The Senate… so as to cover the truth?

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

“…to cover the truth”?

Says who?

America is not a banana/cactus fruit [beles] republic like El Dorado [Eritrea].

The White House said Fauci is busy dealing with the pandemic and will appear before Congress later.

“While the Trump Administration continues its whole-of-government
response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and
expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the
very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at Congressional
hearings,” said White House spokesman Judd Deere. “We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time.”

Tony is being blocked coz he is busy?
Tony has been blocked many times by Trump NOT to tell the facts during the daily briefings!
Tell that to the naive of /at the “Fox and Friends”!
What was the reason Trump blocked all the key witnesses during his impeachment?

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

You are a confused soul.

Sultan M.G.

Simon:
And you are a LOST soul.

Simon Kaleab

Sultan,

You are braying hopelessly.

David Samson

Selam Simon,

Years ago, I read a book on China, written by a Brit. I can’t remember the title of the book, nevertheless, the essence of the book was how the Chinese used many dubious business practices to con an American Investment Banker. During the 80s
when the Chinese communist party opened up the market to the west, the banker
was keen to tab in the potential. He met the English chap who was teaching English at the time. The chap spoke perfect Mandarin and agreed to act as interpreter for the American. I can’t remember the exact figure, but the Banker more likely to have lost over $3billion.

I do not like, or agree with Trump’s politics, but he is the only person who can halt the Chinese march. Since the EU is so divided and so weak and does not work as a single unit, the Chinese are using these loopholes to arm-twist some of the EU’s members. Unless the EU works as a block and has the same policy, the Chinese will be all over us very soon. There was a TV documentary titled “The Chinese are coming”. Indeed, they are coming. Forget about the soft-touch democratic chap; Trump is the world’s last bet before we are sold down the river.

Simon Kaleab

Selam David,

Joe Biden [sleepy Joe] of the Globalist, Democratic Champagne Socialist party is corrupt to the bone.

His son is making millions from his board position in one or more Chinese companies, similar to his Ukraine case.

Zero experience Hunter Biden [does not have experience in gas/oil, does not speak Ukrainian/Russian] was making millions by sitting on the board of the Ukrainian company called Bursima, while his father was vice president to Obama Obigmamma.

Sultan M.G.

Simon:
Sir, can you STOP insulting the Basics of Intelligence?
So,in Simon’s world Ivanka and Jared have experience to be Senior Presidential Advisors of the President of the most powerful nation under the sun??

Corruption?
Gosh, Trump is who, now?

Simon Kaleab

Sultan/Hope,

Intelligence? You have none.

A political appointment that brings zero or peanut salary is not the same as the business corruption of Biden.

Hi Simon,
I was hoping you also could tell us about the corruption of DJT for comparison purposes. Thanks. Aron

Simon Kaleab

Aron,

I was hopping you will report this “corruption” to the FBI.

Sultan M.G.

Simon,
Please define “CORRUPTION”.

Simon Kaleab

Hope,

Ask the person who trained you to be an Ambulance Driver.

Paulos

Selam All,

Tamrat Negara is saying stuff. Kinda funny stuff. Really. Yea the same guy who said, we can stroll up to Eritrea while brushing our teeth or hair not sure which one but he said about brushing and strolling nonetheless. And this time around where the wild speculations about Isaias’ fate seem to be in a spill over moment down there as well, Negara is saying that, Abiy should send his military to Eritrea to restore order If the rumor about Isaias holds water. But his suggestion comes with a sinister motives where not only “Pax Ethiopicana” in the making but in a bid to bring back the one thousand kilometers long coastal line onto Ethiopia’s fold as well.

A poor man they say, dreamt of finding a sack of gold but the thing was that the sack had a hole in it and smart that he was, he stuck his finger in it to stop the gold from spilling, little did he know that, when he woke up, he found his finger stuck in his b*tt hole instead. I suspect, the poor guy might as well have been Negara.

Kaddis

Selam Gash Paulos –

This is probably the reason we hangout here than following the crap and hateful publications printed in Addis; now successfully migrated to Youtube. This guy and his partner Abiy Techlemariam ( I think he gave me few courses at the commercial college in Adds ) had a popular newspaper called AddisNeger. It was known for more of opinion pieces than news. Then suddenly they were pushed by tplf or used their media to get asylum in Europe & US and suddenly became journalists in exile. Not judging cause I dont want people to exile for no reason. I rarely read their writing and i dont regret it.

Tamrat come from an Ethiopian army family who died during the long Eritrean war.
He is a great representation of the Amharic class in the city who deny the loss of the war by Derg and dreams of rectifying it by force while they accuse tplf giving up both the port of Massawa and Asseb. They also have admiration for Isias. The whole thing doesn’t add up for me but Isias looks to like them back as well. Bizarre

Kim Hanna

Selam Kaddis,

You were disgusted by some publications in Addis. I hope there is a boundary line for their excessive fictitious crap.
In U.S some of these individuals make a little money from a real estate deal and they jump straight in to journalism or advocacy. They sometimes play revolutionaries.
There is absolutely no fear or consequences on their part in U.S.
At times they behave in a bombastic ways to attract attention.

You Tube and other places are the Arada Durye hangouts where they aggregate and compete for attention. The more you talk about them the more they get currency and encouragement.
Nitricc is one of those customers who gives them oxygen and notoriety, here at Awate.
I prey we ignore these internet warriors so that they naturally disappear in to thin air, the way they came.
Imagine you work hard and spend your life savings to get out of the country and as soon as you move and settled in to your new apartment in London or Washington D.C, you call your cousins to go to war and destruction.

Mr. K.H

Teodros Alem

selam kaddis
Yea, 1, every ethiopian, not just amhara but those who believe in ethiopia believe a big country like ethiopia needs to have her own port that is a known fact, only ethiopia haters r the one opposed ethiopia’s access to sea.
2, derg’s stupidity was the one that helped ur backward and evil wishing ideology to expand in ethiopia, so no proud ethiopians including most derg former members don’t like derg.
3, saying pia is much better than woyane don’t mean, ethiopians admire pia.
4, every proud ethiopian agree with tamerat, except his offensive words and some unnecessary words. If he articulate his views in well politically correct way, as far as i know 99% ethiopian who believe in ethiopia agree with him.

Nitricc

Hi All; a few Ethiopians like this man, It is possible to live in peace. Once again Tamrat Segera is opened his mouth and this let it have it.

You know after the last two interview this guy did on Eritrea and how Eritreans and even a lot of Ethiopians reacted, you would think this Shegera (shegarum Sudo journalist) would have invited others with opposing views.

But no, he gives him more opportunity to insult Eritreans and our country.

I never heard of this journalist before nor have heard of his channel, but someone called him no nonsense journalist, and what a nonsense that is.

They both are under the payroll of someone, and the aim to to enrage us so we are busy fighting this useless guy. while they are preparing to go for the kill.

All concerted and coordinated assaults that’s coming is, in preparation of their intimate objectives.

The problem is, they really do not know and understand the Eritreans people resolve. It’s really sad, they are leaving a legacy of hate and mistrust among the two people, but they should know that, they need us more than they need them.

Berhe

Nitricc

Hi Berhe; I am comment on your take tomorrow but for now, what is surprising is Ethiopia can’t even defend themselves let alone to invade anyone. They are so weak even Sudan invoked them. They gave all that land yet, they can’t for go Badime; witch decided by the court.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kswOttQS8D4

Nitricc

You know after the last two interview this guy did on Eritrea and how Eritreans and even a lot of Ethiopians reacted, you would think this Shegera (shegarum Sudo journalist) would have invited others with opposing views.

Hey Berhe; probably couldn’t find any one to be as foolish and stupid as this fat slop. But to speak honestly; The Eritreans themselves are encouraging and embodying for such people to come out openly and disrespecting Eritrea. For instance; you know we don’t see eye to eye with your friend Semere; do you think because he did something wrong towards me or any one I know? No! it is one thing to criticize and to trash a government but when you come out and you trash the entire GEDLI and its actors? You are not only creating a crack but you are encouraging, feeding to likes of the Agazians, the Tigryans, the Segeras and the rest who wish nothing but death to Eritrea and Eritreans. Sure, there are problems un Eritrea but you can only solve them if you have the country herself. My advice to the likes of Semere is, if you need to criticize, go ahead and burn the government but don’t go to the Gedli, don’t go to the Tegadelti. when they read that kind of statements from an Eritrean, they get encouraged and they feed on it and they come with this outrageous BS the likes of what Tamirat Segera is saying. So, Eritreans should do their part to limit this madness against Eritrea and Eritreans. As for you, I have never read any of your articles undermining the Country,the Gedli and Tegadelti and I thank you for that.

Sultan M.G.

General:
Read Mr Kim Hana:
You are making such trashes to get what they want:$$$ as you tubers!

Kaddis

Selam Gash Semere and David Samson ( if you don’t mind ) I brought this up seeing the interest, even bringing gash Mohamud back from quarantine : )

At policy level, if you open up gradually, at your own terms and after putting enough regulatory agencies ( as much as possible, the corporates are stronger than European governments mind you) the benefits are there. Ethiopia is lagging behind like byzantine level to be honest. We are at a point of giving up on travelling outside the country – we can’t book hotels online, rent cars even buy a books; forget the online courses. The by credit card only life is hurting us hard, we are being left out and very shameful even in front of the Kenyans. Its a turn off for investors.

The tech sector has also huge potential for employment specially for young countries like ours, demographically.

Unfortunately, the global capital, the meaningful one, is concentrated at the hands of few corporates, individuals. Remember the now boring yearly Oxfam report released just before the rich Maheber DAVOS …75 percent of global wealth is at the hands of 300 people or something? ..So attracting capital is a must, the issue is to which sectors are you attracting? is it to your extraction sectors, gold mines, fishery or to industries, shipping, port, banking, airlines, energy, tourism etc…some sectors are interrelated and you can’t avoid them selectively…big companies need their bank ( int’l law protection) presence in the country they want to invest in, they just don’t want to work with the Awash or Bunna banks of ours which function like Equbs ..

So Ethiopia has the readiness to attract capital in diversified sectors. The investment on infrastructure using a developmental policy has paid off.

My biggest issue is when the opening up is happening to gain legitimacy. When the government has no social or ideological capital to rule the nation – it uses foreign power money, PR, force whatever, in exchange for staying on power. This is opening up on your knees ..like Meles once said. Not putting even the minimum protection for the economy, environment (GMO), employment etc..The developmental models are always meant to open up at one point – the when and how is always a political decision which Ethiopia is not in a position to do right now – but its happening anyways, by a government with few months mandate remaining.

The biggest blame goes to TPLF – they kept the country without any branch of the government independent and professional enough to protect the nation’s pillars. A parliament and house of federation ( lower house?) full of low level cadres, toothless judiciary (Nitric), even to protect tplf itself after losing the grip. They nurtured cadre loyalty only culture, who joined the party to maintain the corrupted system. So when they get the chance now (negotiated with the neoliberal power brokers) – the only thing they know, specially OPDO, was selling land. Now they upgraded themselves on selling public enterprises. And there is no media, court, even a labour union to resist.
Cheers,

Abi

Hello Kaddis
You are on fire these couple of days!!
Keep the fire burning and bring us more ዳቦ. I see more advantages than disadvantages by opening the business for international corporations. ህልም ፈርተን ቆመን ቀረን እኮ ጃል!
Just imagine the potential for distance learning! We need more of everything!!
More ዳቦ ለተራበ!

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

I think the issue of quality of service should be looked at and I am sure there is a lot more way to improve it. If you take the Ethiopian airlines as an example, there is no reason why the same thing can’t happen in other sector of the sectors such as banking and telecom by hiring competent leaders who can transform the companies and make them efficient, profitable and provide good quality service. I believe Ethiopian engineers are more than capable to do that if there is a good leadership and vision at the top. They can even hire foreign executives for that matter if necessary.

I think Great Britain under Tacher went through that whole exercise in the 80s-90s, and I can’t say GB is better off today financially.

Berhe

David Samson

Hi Berhe,

Thatcher turned back the state’s frontier. Love or loath her, she changed this country forever. The most influential PM since Churchill, in my opinion. She was hated so much by a section of the public— mainly Working-class Northerners who had vested interest— they held a concert in celebrating her death while her admirers were mourning her passing.

I do not think many people in the UK nowadays remember all these companies which are now privately owned were once state-controlled. But the issue of state versus private has not gone away. In fact, the last Labour party— led by the most leftist— had promised and put it on its manifest to re-nationalise all the ex-state, now private companies. I have to admit, I was really horrified, not so much in principle, but the party was committing electoral suicide.

I do not see any appetite by the public to go back to the bad old days of the 70s. What I am equally surprised is by the finding of a report on post-mortem on why the party had lost. If we were to believe the report, the re-nationalisation issue was not the main culprit, but “Brexit”. In fact, many voters would have voted for it.

Berhe Y

Hi David,

It was long tine and good to see you. Hope you and your family are doing well. I think the UK is not under radar and may be over shadowed by the US, the numbers have been climbing quite high.

I remember the case of the UK privatization and Regan trickle down economics had happened at around the same time and it has changed the labour relationship in the countries.

For all the wealth that’s created in all those years, I think in my opinion, the must benefit ended up going to very small numbers (at least that’s the case in the US) with little or any benefit to the working class.

Speaking of Brexit to one guy from the UK, around the tine the votes happened, that I don’t understand why they voted to exited from the EU. He said, it’s like there are two type of England. Those who are in London and around and in services who have done well and those in most cities who use to depend on manufacturing jobs. It’s really, really bad for those people, because almost all of them are on social assistance and there is no jobs created to replace the list jobs.

My problem with privatization and all is, as it has been practices in some western countries, the owners of such companies suck dry the profits and they find all lope holes not paying taxes and hide the profit somewhere in safe heaven countries.

In the US fir example, Amazon made over 11 billion dollars in profits but it paid 0 tax due to the tax cuts, and it got 129 million in return because what it claimed spend from past loses, and it uses stock options to pay its executives which they avoid paying taxes (less taxes) where the company reached valuation over 1 trillion.

Compared to how much the company done, closing many good paying companies where they can’t compete with, the jobs that were created are really minimum paying jobs for the most majority.

I know this is not a problem for Ethiopia, but I don’t think it benefited the country and the people equally.

I personally favour some balance where state owned / or protected industry must exit with the government having an oversight and power to stop any selling / owning assets of key assets due to national security.

In Canada for example, banking, telecom, airlines are almost all of them Canadian owned business where it’s so hard due to government regulations and laws restrict foreign ownership to the industry. We probably pay the highest when it comes to banking fees and cellphone compared to most western countries, but they employ a good number of people and the jobs have remained for the most part local.

Ethiopia huge population is huge revenue / cash generation for the country. Any issue in terms of quality of services should be able to be resolved by capable leaders.

If this services are sold to foreign owned entities, for sure the long term loss in stream of revenue will have significant damage to the country.

I think it would make sense to me, if the government use the revenue from these industry to spring board other industries and find revenue in different ways, such as creating stock exchange and this companies listed there and inject cash to them where they have the protection of going bankrupt without losing their assets if it comes to that.

Sorry, may be I am all over:).

Berhe

David Samson

Hi Berhe,
I am “Yemeskel Wef” on Awate.

So far so good! According to some experts, the UK will
end up as one of the highest, if not the highest death rate in Europe. We are not out of the woods yet. You know the PM almost did not make it. “It could have gone either way”, was his words. Little is reported on the impact of this invisible killer in Canada.

I agree with your overall tone and sentiment. The debate
over the merit and demerit of privatisation will always be with us. Historical, the USA has always been predominantly market economy, driven by the private sector, while the UK goes through phases. Right after the second world war, the overriding priority of public-owned enterprise was seen from state security reasons. Keynesian—demand-side economics— was the dominant economic model and was in line with public investment. In the late 70s, the tide was turned against Keynes and the old Classic economic model— mainly championed by Monetarist Economist, Friedman— was the new boy in town. Friedman advised, both Thatcher and Regan. Since then, the state has become a dirty word and the new mantra is “Leave the market alone”

The debate on Brexit has moved on. Even those on the
other received end has accepted that Brexit is the new reality and what left is how to make best out of it. Whatever one’s view boils down to core of democracy:respect the will of the people since the people have spoken and we are out.

Berhe Y

Hi David,

Glad to hear. We have been lucky so far, and the governments at all levels acted early and there is no drama except “listening to the experts” and all of them seem to sync and in tune with response. I have not heard any single politician, or journalist or popular person or business owner complaining or protesting the lockdown, it started mid March (finished week 7 I think) . We were hit during the SARS crisis and it may have helped to prepare and respond better. And I think having a single government payer health system have helped as well, as there is no real cost factor but shared by the public health system (another reason why some sectors are better run by governments).

So far the mostly affected people have been people in old home communities probably more than 50 percent of the overall death.

And it didn’t seem to hurt as much it seems, I think may be because the economy was doing ok, and government I think had some room to payout people’s salary for most if not all that were affected, which helped for people to stay home.

Some of the guys from work told me, I hope after this, working from home becomes a permanent option for everyone, which I would certainly do not mind. Good for the environment instead of driving or crowded public transit, as well as work and life balance, not to mention the corporations wouldn’t mind cutting office expense costs too.

Hope the economy gets better, the governor of Bank of England was a hero before he went to the UK, as he was credited for saving the economy in the last financial crisis.

But I think the economic fall down will hit hard (Specially because of oil crash) once the dust settles and the real pain begins, specially if the US is hurt.

In my opinion, this is not a black or white issue, or a must not do. One shouldn’t be scared to try, because Ethiopia is not the first or the last. It is possible to see that some aim to score political points against the government as usual. On the other side self-reliance seems to be the main point, and having nothing to do with the intertwined economy of today’s world. Unfortunately, a third world country can’t create modern telecom services on self-reliance alone, because there is not the technological base for that.
A democratic system of government should not worry about security. It doesn’t mean that the government becomes incompetent because of privatization to fight foreign intervention. On the contrary, it may not be able to hide its undemocratic actions if it is authoritarian. There lies the difference in my opinion.
The other point is the tax revenue, profit hiding and avoidance of reinvestment, which can happen if Ethiopian officials are corrupt (as they are) and the government does nothing, which i hope not.

Saleh Johar

Ismael,
Don you think at the beginning globalization, privatization and the like were attractive slogans and then became repulsive? It turns out privatization is handing over the governing tasks of the government to a handful profiteers. Look around, it was mostly a deceit as wealth concentrates in the hands of a few and destitution increases. This is even happening in the developed countries, poor countries will certainly be victims of ruthless sort of colonialism. Maybe it will work if the brutal monster capitalism came to be is tamed.

Selam SJG,
I am not sure if your comment is meant for me.
Neoliberalism and globalisation with little or no government intervention lost its usefulness when it was proved that it is anti-working class and anti-welfare state and pro multinational economic giants. In Ethiopia’s case developmental state as an alternative didn’t have a chance to succeed as it did in SE Asia due to klepocracy and nepotism, which left behind a huge barden of foreign debts, the country has failed to service, or is forced to service at the expense of covering the needs in health and education. Personally, I believe that it is a choice of necessity and not that of desire. Ethiopia can’t go back to the old system that had failed, and the new economic system to a certain extent could be called gambling. No other choice is available. Nevertheless, the outcome will not depends only on what the multinationals want to do, but also, on what the government would allow them. What Ethiopia must do is to fight aggressively its indigenous corruption problem, more than anything else. This would be the litmus test, in my opinion.
True, exploitive capitalism has no future. It is said that most of the problems of the world are due to this economic system. Even the failure to handle the pandemic is attributed to capitalism. That is why some experts in the field tell us that history has not yet ended, and socialism is not dead. Some even say that the future world of automation, AIs and joblessness entertains a socialist system of government, public ownership of the means of production and UBI, if social upheaval is to be avoided.

Kaddis

Selam Abi,
Not on fire haha …maybe its because the political discussion just started here and I am excited by the unexpected turns the world is going, also regionally. I always felt our politics is very predictable but now that the global power base looks shaken – I want to see proper changes happening in Ethiopia
Yes – we are fed up with this starving economy.

Paulos

Selam Kaddis,

The nation certainly has come a long way–from Absolutism to Military Dictatorship and again to Democratic Centralism laced with a pragmatic Authoritarianism. The latter has brought about civil discourse where opposing ideas could be entertained where the people are the jury and the sole owners of legitimacy. Now someone got to get the credit for it. What I have in mind is not certainly Abiy. I am sure you agree.

Kaddis

Selam Gash Paulos –
Yes – the credit goes to the drafters of the constitution ( supposedly elitist due to their background but very pragmatic) and TPLF for trying hard to accommodate ideas. Yes again – the country came a long way and we lived a relatively stable and progressive life compared to where we were in the 90s.
But the risk is massive due to our size and the push and pull factors from inside and the geopolitics. Isiaias has been a very bad influence and Abiy, not only Ethiopians, but also exposed the Eritrean refugees in Ethiopia denying protection from the very system they are running away.
I have never felt this much shame how we are conducting in our region and hope there is a political breakthrough using legal means next Ethiopian new year

Teodros Alem

selam kaddis
I wonder when u guys gonna talk about “dabo leterabut”, real problem of urs. u guys r busy talking about eritrea and ethiopia poltics, i mean eri is independent country and read about fdre(ethiopia) constitution.
Did u notice when 3A the more distance himself from tplf, the more his support is getting bigger and bigger, from somali kilil all the way to gambela.
u know why? tplf and co is the one hold ethiopia hostage for over 40 years.
anyways don’t be cruel, come up with idea for dabo letrabut instead of interfering in other peoples business.

Kaddis

Selam Teddy
I am from Shegar and sheger only. If you are talking about tigray – its not the number – its a core state for Ethiopia so they will have unfortunately or not a disproportional influence in Ethiopia
We have seen development – Dabo made in bulk – but unless a proper political check and balance is established in Eth – the Dabo will be eaten by the makers, unfairly …then people will be upset, protest …the cycle continues

Teodros Alem

selam kaddis
still u have 5-6% say about ethiopia according to the constitution, because there is no even 0.1% chance ur kind of poltical views will have a say in shegar( addis).
U mean a parasite state or a core State, as we speak u know how things r in tigrai r so bad, locusts, drought and so on. try to solve ur problem, u can’t hide it anymore ,it is everywhere . bad attention for others don’t change the problem .

Paulos

Selam Kaddis,

One thing I can never come to terms with is the collective denial exuded particularly by the elite when the change has been palpable and conspicuous where the poster child hanging on to his last breath is not Ethiopia’s stereotype no more. Regrettably however, the selling political platform has become ለ27 ዓመታተ ጨለማ ውስጥ ነበርን and Abiy the mediocre is cashing in on it to the last penny.

As it happened, last night, I was talking to my cousin over the phone who lives in Canada. And he was telling me about this documentary which was aired on the major TV channel two days ago where the title is “Finding Sally” short for Selamawit.

It was a story about this Ethiopian young woman who was born into a well known family [King Haileselassie was the God-Father of her Dad’s] whose father was Ethiopian Ambassador to Canada in the 60s. She goes to Ethiopia for a visit and she meets this guy who was an active member of EPRP. And they fell in love and apparently she joined the clandestine movement as well. She never went back to Canada where she ended up in ዓሲምባ instead.

The film-maker [Tamara-Mariam Dawit] who is also related to the family–interviews Sally’s three older sisters including their mother’s who still lives in Addis. The story is a classic Neo-Realism sans dramatic genre if you will. The ending is as sad as it was not only as expected but Sally and her husband died before the essence of their cause was realised. The question is, was it going to be realized had they survived? As a public intellectual, the film maker failed to address the crucial question, instead she repeated the same banal mantra “ለ27 በጨለማ ነበርን” when the grieving sisters joined her in bashing EPRDF and praising the charlatan Abiy. Were they bitter because EPRP was the loser and the vanquished or were they really bitter because a rival of EPRP stole the mantle of power when what it brought about [a tangible change including economic change] is denied when the rest of the world including the poster child attests for it? A genuine audience will have to answer to it if the film-maker didn’t have a selected audience in mind.

Teodros Alem

selam paulos
The poster child image is the created by tplf and derg war and used to defame derg in extension ethiopia and that is the reality and that image was nothing to do with the rest of ethiopia specially southern part of ethiopia.
and u can see the poster child image even today every where specially in saudi, Yemeni border.

Berhe Y

Hi Kaddis,

The singer named AKON (who has an Ethiopian wife now) was in Addis a couple of years I think. He sat down for interview, I don’t recall the channel, and the girl asked him, “so AKON how can we enjoy your music if we want to listen?”. He looked at her and seem puzzled, what do you mean? And she said, you know they don’t make the CDs anymore and we can’t buy it her. He said, it will be online. But we still can’t get that. He puzzled even more, it will be in iTunes, Spotify etc., you just have to purchased there. She said, we can’t do that, we can’t use the credit card to buy. He said, looks taken back, wow, that’s interesting. So I totally understand what you mean. To be honest, POS (Point of Sale) has been around for a long time, and now even with the likes of Apple getting to the market, it’s not a technology/ know how issue, but rather the banks do not have the ability to operate with credit market like many others, mostly I think related to hard currency.

I really don’t know the answer what’s best but I wish there was some Ethiopian retirement fund in places like the US, or selling bonds, etc where the majority of the share owners are Ethiopians and they inject needed hard currency to those industries in return for regular payouts / dividends.

The issue of selling such enterprises to foreign entities is that, what ever price they pay today, will be totally insignificant, almost zero to how much it will be worth in the future, with advancement in technology (internet access ) and the population increase.

From technology point of view. There hasn’t been a better time, for any country to be able to build and enhance their infrastructure as today, with entry cost as well as open source technologies and free available knowledge.
Any Ethiopian with good internet speed can become a VOIP or POS within couple of weeks with very small investment in capital. And having cloud technology makes it even much better because one can avoid the upfront cost of expensive data centre with power and cooling systems, security as well as paying hardware and maintenance, but you pay what you consume. So in other words, if you have no customers you pay nothing. I had mentioned this to Amde before, but I have the Ethiopian Gerd project considers lying fiber along the transmission lines when that project kicks in. It will pay hugely in the future.

Believe it or not, Microsoft who are the second in market share it n cloud technology with their Azure cloud have setup / tested their technology in Ethiopia back in 2008 I think. They gave 250,000 teachers I think, and they were accessing their cloud technology in the US. I personally think, the company was testing their technology at the time, but I would have hopped, Ethiopian engineers would have been at the forefront in that technology and industry by now. Right now it really is very hot field and MS, I think have setup a site in SA fir that.

Going back to the topic, I think with the current political conditions in Ethiopia, it is certainly a risk that they regret in the future.

As far as creating jobs and all, I would say, may be initially during the infrastructure build, but after that, they will manage it remotely with little or no long term gains, because they have yes incentive to train and setup shops when they already have that in other locations like India.

My 2 cents.

Berhe

Nitricc

Going back to the topic, I think with the current political conditions in Ethiopia, it is certainly a risk that they regret in the future.

Hi Berhe; the first question an investor ask is; how staple is the country of intended investing and no Ethiopian can answer that their country stable and worthy investing. No one. Even the Sudan soldiers invaded Ethiopian land as we speak. And PMAA the day before yesterday, he told the country that Ethiopia is at highest point being invaded. I have no idea why he didn’t tell the truth. may be he learned from TPLF’s war declaration against Eritrea.

Berhe Y

Hi Nitricc,

I don’t think it is too much risk for the investors..the risk is for the Ethiopian people selling such lucrative business for cheap.

In case of cellphone for example, they could do what most other countries do i.e. auction the rights to use new spectrum where the provider is expected to come and build the infrastructure and provide better and competitive rates for the consumer. And that right to use the spectrum is time base lease (20 years or something) so the government of the future at a later date can revoke / opt not to renew if the market condition has changed and it doesn’t benefit the governments of the day.

But I think the government should setup some agency in how to handle such process. Where I live, the government made over 3.5 billion by selling rights to use the spectrum and there is a body which is responsible for such matters.

It’s very protected industry, even the US is not able to come and penetrated (all similar industry that Ethiopia wants to privatize such as telcome, banking, airlines) are all owned and managed by local companies (the most majority of them), the majority share holders in those companies are pension trust companies.

Berhe

Nitricc

Hi Berhe; may be my understanding of the subject is wrong. I thought the whole is about some wealthy company to inject their money in to the Ethiopian public enterprises? NO?

Berhe Y

Hi Nitricc,

I think you are correct and that’s the plan. I can tell you there will not be any shortage of companies who would like to buy a piece of those companies. They are not buying for what the companies worth today, but what they will worth in the future.

Berhe

Kaddis

Selam Gash Berhe,

If I start from the last point – its not the telecom companies jobs – but jobs created using stable connections, streaming, connected populations, apps etc
True – if you know Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanes investor – he made his billion by just buying and selling Tanzanians telecom within 3 years –

Yeah we have many stories like Akon. Foreigners coming with their card only to find out POS are not working, 7 million passengers pass through Adds, very few shops maintain POS at the airport, Ethiopians travelers stuck in foreign airports unable to change flights because payment is by card only. We lose money to foreign banks account maintenance fees just to have a foreign account. Its very frustrating.
We used to defend the gov for keeping the telecom company to use the revenue for developmental work, now its better to take the risk and try to absorb capital to the diversified sectors Ethiopia created over the years – not only the telecom sector.
Stable internet and power has become a decisive factor to attract proper capital, even to other sectors. We should be in a better position than other African countries because our government structure has many layers and regulators due to the state capitalist model that we tried. Assuming the new childish government will be mixed with some sane groups come next election.

Nitricc

the only thing they know, specially OPDO, was selling land. Now they upgraded themselves on selling public enterprises. And there is no media, court, even a labour union to resist.

Hey Kaddis; I am not an economist so, I can just give my ignorant view. Structure defines function as biochemistry tells us and I see no structure in Ethiopia, not even small. I do believe this not the time Ethiopia deals with her public enterprises; even if some argue it is; and certainly not the right leader on the top to do the job. So, from my view point it is; neither the right time nor a capable leader to execute this major public enterprises.

Kaddis

Selam Nitric
Yes – the timing is bad. its rushed like crazy. We are praying the neoliberal pushers are distracted due to the virus and the coming election in the US. If Ethiopian election debates also start in full force – I am sure some oppositions would make it an issue, hence delayed

Semere Tesfai

Selam Kaddis

1. – “At policy level, if you open up gradually, at your own terms and after putting enough regulatory agencies (as much as possible, the corporates are stronger than European governments mind you) the benefits are there.”

Kaddis: my argument is not about the speed of opening-up – immediate vs gradual. My argument is not even about Ethiopia’s inability (doubt) to have “enough/proper regulatory agencies” – which it could. My argument is: there are things you open for foreign investment and there are others you don’t at all – no matter what. And Ethio-Telecom is one of the things you don’t allow foreign entity to own it – even if it is partial ownership.

I don’t have any problem foreigners investing/owning large Ethiopian farmlands; I don’t have any problem foreign investors investing/owning in every Ethiopian mining sector; I don’t have any problem foreign investors investing/owning in Ethiopian gas and petroleum drilling companies; I don’t mind foreign investors investing/owning in Ethiopian manufacturing companies…….

In my opinion, in the name of modernizing Ethiopia’s communication system, selling the profitable Ethio-Telecom with its 65 million subscribers is not only a grave mistake but also – knowingly or unknowingly – compromising and risking Ethiopia’s national security. In the name of foreign investment, you don’t compromise your government’s communication data (security, military, intergovernmental communications); you don’t compromise your businesses communication data, you don’t compromise your consumers privacy and communication data; and in the name of foreign investment you don’t deny your government the ability to run its business freely without any fear of security risks. If you do, you’re running the risk of instability and as a result you might even lose the very country you are dreaming to develop, due to chaos incited by by foreign interference using Ethio-Telecom as a tool of incitement.

2. – “Ethiopia is lagging behind like byzantine level to be honest. We are at a point of giving up on travelling outside the country – we can’t book hotels online, rent cars even buy a books; forget the online courses. The by credit card only life is hurting us hard, we are being left out and very shameful even in front of the Kenyans. Its a turn off for investors.”

Ethiopia is a lot stronger, a lot wealthier, and with a lot of potential than you and I think. Ethiopia is a big country with a large population and with a large market. Ethiopia is a wealthy country with a lot of resources. It can afford to pay/contract any communication company in the world to update its communication systems, and once updated, it has the necessary financial and human resources to run and to maintain its communication systems. Mind you: Ethio-Telecom is the biggest the most profitable communication business in the African continent. It doesn’t need government money; it can pay for itself. All it needs is competent and dedicated leadership that makes it competitive.

Semere Tesfai

Kaddis

Selam Gash Semere,

I know telecom is big and its clean money. Least corruptible in terms of revenue and the West fight tooth and nail to make you open. France mixed its space agency to protect it and always ranked the 60th or more for ease of doing business, the least from the developed world. The data and security issue is less convincing because once you use google – they have everything. We are not at that luxury.

You should see at the liberalization level, not sector by sector, and I can’t avoid but to politicize it; its not that I don’t know the benefit of keeping these sectors – the problem is we the citizens have no say in making the economic environment to be competitive and efficient. We have zero influence as for example as ITC association, chamber of commerce, progressive party or any organized group to make the government become efficient, access the global e-commerce market etc…
Only the IMF, the WTO, World Bank types etc.. arm twisting can do that. And we are tired of waiting and justifying for these cadre driven governments – because they would not listen to us. We are losing on both fronts, crappy and expressive service and a corrupted rich government.

Its better to liberalize the telecom and create jobs using stable connections, develop online services etc…not jobs from the telecom company but from the connected population.

David Samson

Hi Kaddis,

A regulatory body is aimed at mainly protecting consumers
from abuse of market power by a private monopolist. Remember, it does not make any economic sense turning a single supplier from state-monopoly into private monopoly.
You are merely sweeping state for private. The overriding motive should be to open the sector for competition. However, by their nature, some sectors have a
single supplier; in this case, there is one Ethio telecom. It is economical suicide
to built up another cable of lines. BT( British Telecom) owned the only line in
the UK until the invention of Cabel lines. So, the question is then how do you introduce competition where there is a sole supplier? As you pointed out, you put some kind of “Watch Dog”. We have many, here in the UK. The job of a watchdog is to protect consumers from unfair price and promote competition by encouraging other suppliers to enter the market.They are almost toothless and most private companies bosses know how to play around the system.

Earning foreign currency is a plausible argument but has
to be on a massive scale. Unless the Ethio government put up its silverware (Ethio
Airline) for sale, the potential earning from telecom is tiny.

Kaddis

Hi David –
Surprisingly – some critics like an Ethiopian economist by the name AbdulMenan Mohammed, actually based in UK, said the gov looks on the right track splitting the agency to infrastructure and service, then regulator, service provider,valuation, protocols etc…And the opening up includes letting competition in as well as selling part of tele. Its just the timing that I dont really like – due to the transitional nature of this government.
Its not also a bad idea to sell part of the airlines when its doing great and expanding – not the other way around.

By simple common sense, what Dr AAA’s Gov is doing to improve the Ethiopian Economy and to generate hard currency is but commendable with no other realistic and practical alternatives.
If you have any other better options, please air them.
Destructive criticism is worse than anything else.
Timing?
What a better timing could be than NOW?

Everything is relative and imperfect.

The only thing we have to do is to chart out the Risk-Benefit Ratio and to be prepared for any eventuality and take appropriate actions to minimize the risks.
“ Letekemach semay kirb new”!

Kaddis

Selam Sultan
The million naqfa question is ተቀማጭ መሆኔን በምን አወቅህ ፣ ተንቀሳቃሽ ብሆንስ? -))
Every government has a purpose that needs to deliver to earn its legitimacy – that is trying to respond to the questions of the struggle. Imagine Isias skipped the independence steps in early 90s or Derg jumped enacting Meret Larashu. Or Woyane ignored the question of nationalities. Abiy can not jump the democratization process demanded by the youth for 6 years now and dodge by making a park.

Paulos,
The wheelchair story is true. It was isais” blessing and the holy water of the Adi Halo pond. I have applied for license to bottle and distribute that holy water and awaiting approval by the demigod. Don’t sin, the age of miracles is still on.

Paulos

Selam Aya Saleh,

What puzzles me is that I really don’t know what they see in that man much less to worship him to the extent of deluding themselves into receiving healings.

First of, the man got no charisma. As you know, charisma is not about good looks but about having a powerful aura where everyone feels safe around a person—Obama, Mandela and many more who are truly blessed to have the “It.” And that is precisely the reason they inspire us in a time of need and troubles. If anything, that man is truly evil, the way he looks at you is evil and he has this evil and dark eyes. One only wonders what the wheelchair woman is going to say to those thousands of Eritreans who had perished and whose dreams are destroyed one way or another in the hands of that evil man.

Doterre,
These dictators are sick and idle. They have not much to do and to entertain themselves they play hide and seek.
BTW, according to JStudio, his house and offices are guarded by Ethiopian forces. There is also a rumor about Woldenkiel ….but to be verified. ዝውሸባ ኳ ሃለውለው ከብለና ጀሚሩ።

Also, about the COVID-19, I have a friend who lives in Oakland, his older cousin died from it in Asmara, about a week ago. Did Charlie claim they have any fatalities? No way!

Semere Tesfai

Selam All

“Ethiopia moved closer to liberalizing one of the world’s final frontiers for telecommunications by publishing the final draft of directives that mention spectrum permits will be valid for 15 years.

The Ethiopian Communications Authority will hold consultations on the proposed rules for 14 days ending May 11, the agency said in a statement on its website. It will review and “consider the comments in adopting the directives” on issues including licensing, consumer rights and dispute resolution.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration wants to offer two new licenses and sell part of the state-controlled monopoly, Ethio Telecom, to help liberalize the economy and attract more foreign capital. Vodacom Group Ltd., MTN Group Ltd., Orange SA and Helios Towers have expressed interest in investing in Africa’s second-most populous nation of more than 100 million people.”

Have your say: Compromising National Security to help liberalize the economy and attract more foreign capital. Is this the right move on the part of the Ethiopian government?

Semere Tesfai

Teodros Alem

Selam.Semere Tesfai
Can u tell us or elaborate a little how and in what way liberalizing the economy, in this case liberalizing ethio telecom will ” compromise national security”? Is the reason 3A gov wants to sell part of ethio telecom( not the whole) is something to do with” protecting national security”?
I have no idea about it but i really appreciate if u elaborate a little more.

Semere Tesfai

Selam Teodros Alem

1. – “Can u tell us or elaborate a little how and in what way liberalizing the economy, in this case liberalizing ethio telecom will ” compromise national security”? Is the reason 3A gov wants to sell part of ethio telecom( not the whole) is something to do with” protecting national security”?
I have no idea about it but i really appreciate if u elaborate a little more”

2. – The demands of the investors: lessening government of government regulations and restrictions, removal of controls, privatization (ownership) of government properties and assets (by the investors), investors having full labor flexibility to hire and fire in order to stay competitive on the global market, lower tax again with the objective to stay competitive, open market with minimal or no restriction……………..

3. – The risks for Ethiopia: (a) The investors may siphon dry all the profits for themselves (out of the country) instead of reinvesting and growing the company (b) government may suffer with debt from low or no tax revenues (c) environmental degradation due to lack of regulations.

4. – Threat of National Security: The investors – for the sake of argument let’s say the Chinese – will have full access and control of the Ethiopia’s phone lines, fiber optic cables, cellular networks, satellite in ways that would enable them to have full access to the contents of the country’s communication – Ethiopian businesses, Ethiopian government – even the risk of hijacking and redirecting the the entire communication through China. That’s how risky it is.

Semere Tesfai

Nitricc

Hey Semere;
Nothing but risky!! You cannot liberate an economy where national security is shaky; where corruption is rampant; while your society is addicted to Aid and your educational system is none-existence. There is one great exit to greatness for Ethiopia, it is the white man’s investment and cutting age technology; but to go back to basics; modernize the agriculture sector. In today’s food market and its quality; Ethiopia can easily sell her products, not only to the horn Africa but to Saudi, UAE, Qatar, you name it the sky is the limit. However; understanding Africa and what their priority is, probably they are going to the flashy thing that has no value to the greater good but feeling good. So, if I was the Ethiopian leader; I will not bring the white man to sock the blood of my country and people, rather I will import thousands of tractors and modern agricultural equipment’s and I bring the stick every able body to work. Once you become the bread basket of
Middle East and some east African country and then you will go for the economic liberation you are talking about. When PIA was building dams every corner in the country, people were laughing but not anymore. People are producing three times a year. Modern Agriculture is the only way for Ethiopia.

Teodros Alem

Selam Nitricc
I know the information coming out of ethiopia is mostly fake or biased but i can tell u this for certain, in some part of ethiopia they r doing , i say excellent job on modernizing the agricultural and they imported thousands of tractors and modern agriculture equipment and they turned a lot of farmers to millionaires, that is the fact but still there r farmers unable to feed themselves. why? I think some of thier policy is not the right policy .

Teodros Alem

Selam Semere Tesfai
First i just want to say it is excellent, easy and to the point explanation, i wish the likes of professor paulos, said, horizon, ismeal take some note and learn something so that they don’t make every little thing a rocket science and “hateta”.
having said that, i agree all what u said about the advantages, the rest of ur 3 points , i think, it is more to do with fighting corruption and implementing the right laws and regulations. And also the government companies too face more or less same problems, some say gov companies r more corrupted than private companies.
Thank you.

Sultan M.G.

Selamat Semere:
As usual, a brilliant one!
I wish you can comment on the Eritrean situation like this .

Kaddis

Selam gash Semere – Great insight –

I wouldn’t mind of partly selling or opening the telecom
sector ( in fact we should ) if we have a government with the people’s oversight. Like an elected legislators

This is a government which its term almost expires and
trying to find loopholes on the constitution ( they are forced to read after two years : ) after passionately quoting Isias ‘there are countries who never had election in 30 years …They dont have the mandate to sell a 100 years old public company with months left on power.This is the most uncomfortable part

Plus like you mentioned – when you see governments with resources are responding better to COVID crisis compared to the corporate driven world – how come you jump on selling the few resource the government has. You need the money for the unfolding depression.

As we discussed two years ago – Abiy came to power promising
many things to the power brokers and the liberalization before an elected parliament is one.

The silence of the opposition and Tplf also shows – they are
part of the power bargain that happened two years ago or at least they don’t want to piss the West by showing developmental/ social government tendencies. We have been Corona lucky on so many levels, slow infection, US attention diverted on the Nile until after US November election, also the garage sale of public
enterprises slowed because the west is distracted, WTO accession, now government looks a little bit exposed to face the local political situation and at least pretending to discuss with the opposition, had to deescalate the violence in wolega etc…. I am still hopeful with the mobilized and enlightened youth – especially in the regions.

Cheers,

Ismail AA

Selam Kaddis,

Fair assessment with focus on the politics part of the matter. The on the surface and under the surface tag of war going on amongst the stakeholders under in the post Abij tenure of power may evolve the direction of the transition period that could decide how things will shape to bring the next parliamentary election to a crossroad where the prospects to the future of the country would be clearer. This to say signals whether the country will embark on the free market liberalization or blend it with some aspects of the hitherto officially operating system of developmental state.

Kaddis

Selam Ismail –

There wont be a transitional government for sure, clearly stated by the PM yesterday – something I agree with. There will be election eventually reinforcing the three power bases that are currently fighting to be on top or survive. Tigray, the Amharic center and the oromo dominated south. Most other small states will remain swing states. If there will be a multi-party government in Ethiopia – the Developmental model will survive for sure.

Ismail AA

Selam Kaddis,
Thank you for the brief. Those of us who watch things from afar should by necessity rely on what we get from keen resident observers like you to countercheck and cleanse our understanding from shortcomings enthusiasm driven amateurish follow up on our part engender. I really miss friends like Amde and Fanti.

Teodros Alem

selam kaddis
U said the current fighting includes tigrai(tplf), man, u r funny, they r like hairy old tiny small sick dogs, the hair(media) makes them look like they r big and something but in reality u know, u can’t even tell if “steguram washa” is alive or dead.

Paulos

Tedros,

Do you know why people do not respond to your comment? Simply because, when they discuss serious stuff, you talk nonsense. Learn!

Kaddis

Hi Teddy – lechewtaw yakil

So why did Abiy called for an opposition meeting yesterday and today the election head came to parliament to explain herself – two days after Tplf announced they will do their own election. Why didnt Abiy just leave them?

Teodros Alem

selam kaddis
There r two kind of elections in ethiopia system, 1, for federal parliament, 2, for states and both run by ethiopia election board lead by burtuken medekessa. tplf have no mandate to run election. Why 3A has a meeting with the oppostions? Because to discuss ethiopia election Commission proposed corona interrupted election. Why tplf act like what they acting like? Because tplf is always like hairy dog.
Lechewataw demket new.

Semere Tesfai

Selam Gash Kaddis

1. – “I wouldn’t mind of partly selling or opening the telecom
sector ( in fact we should ) if we have a government with the people’s oversight. Like an elected legislators.”

My Amharic is very rusty, so please accept my apology in advance; I’m going to use a Tigrigna proverb to make my point. And the Tigrigna saying goes: ጤልሲ፡ ኣብ እግራ ዘላ ሳዕሪ ‘ምበር፡ ኣብ ርእሳ ዘላ ሓኽሊ ነይትርኢ – ይባሃል. The point being: even under elected legislators, is liberalizing Ethiopia’s Telecom the right move for Ethiopia. Let me Elaborate:

A. – The foreign investors are going to demand minimal restriction from Ethiopian government as a condition for their investment – and they sure will get it.

B. – If my understanding is right, Ethiopia is willing to offer 30-40 percent share to these foreign investment companies

C. – These companies are in the business of making money. Their obligation and their commitment is only to their bottomline and to their shareholders. And to that end everything goes.

D. – Information (data) is lucrative commodity that could be sold in the market. And the investors are going to have full access to Ethiopian government’s communication data (security, military, administrative, banking, media), Ethiopian business communication data, and Ethiopia’s consumer communication data.

E. – There is one proven fact that foreign investors use to maximize their profit and to have things their way: corrupt government officials by any means including direct threat.

F. – Ethiopia is a poor country where a legislator, a physician, a colonel, a professor…… struggles to put food on the table and roof over the head of his/her family – which makes them tempted for corruption

Now Kaddis, this is the question we need to ask:

1. – Under any Ethiopian government (democratically elected or unelected) would you trust foreign investors wholly or partially owning Ethiopia’s Telecom, Ethiopian Airlines, Ethiopian Power Grid? Why/why not?

2. – Any business (banking system, hospitals, communication system, transport, schools) needs continues improvements and continues investments to remain updated and competitive. Now, do these investors have an obligation to reinvest on Ethio-Telecom year after year to modernize Ethiopia’s communication system in order to remain competitive?

At policy level, if you open up gradually, at your own terms and after putting enough regulatory agencies ( as much as possible, the corporates are stronger than European governments mind you) the benefits are there. Ethiopia is lagging behind like byzantine level to be honest. We are at a point of giving up on travelling outside the country – we can’t book hotels online, rent cars even buy a books; forget the online courses. The by credit card only life is hurting us hard, we are being left out and very shameful even in front of the Kenyans. Its a turn off for investors.

The tech sector has also huge potential for employment specially for young countries like ours, demographically.

Unfortunately, the global capital, the meaningful one, is concentrated at the hands of few corporates, individuals. Remember the now boring yearly Oxfam report released just before the rich Maheber DAVOS …75 percent of global wealth is at the hands of 300 people or something? ..So attracting capital is a must, the issue is to which sectors are you attracting? is it to your extraction sectors, gold mines, fishery or to industries, shipping, port, banking, airlines, energy, tourism etc…some sectors are interrelated and you can’t avoid them selectively…big companies need their bank ( int’l law protection) presence in the country they want to invest in, they just don’t want to work with the Awash or Bunna banks of ours which function like Equbs ..

So Ethiopia has the readiness to attract capital in diversified sectors. The investment on infrastructure using a developmental policy has paid off.

My biggest issue is when the opening up is happening to gain legitimacy. When the government has no social or ideological capital to rule the nation – it uses foreign power money, PR, force whatever, in exchange for staying on power. This is opening up on your knees ..like Meles once said. Not putting even the minimum protection for the economy, environment (GMO), employment etc..The developmental models are always meant to open up at one point – the when and how is always a political decision which Ethiopia is not in a position to do right now – but its happening anyways, by a government with few months mandate remaining.

The biggest blame goes to TPLF – they kept the country without any branch of the government independent and professional enough to protect the nation’s pillars. A parliament and house of federation ( lower house?) full of low level cadres, toothless judiciary (Nitric), even to protect tplf itself after losing the grip. They nurtured cadre loyalty only culture, who joined the party to maintain the corrupted system. So when they get the chance now (negotiated with the neoliberal power brokers) – the only thing they know, specially OPDO, was selling land. Now they upgraded themselves on selling public enterprises. And there is no media, court, even a labour union to resist.
Cheers,

Admassie

Selam Semere Tesfai,

You initiated a good issue for discussion and you gave a great input. Thank you and I really agree with all your points.

The main reason, we are told, for selling a stake of Ethio-telecom and EAL is getting foreign currency so that we can alleviate some of the debt Ethiopia is burdened with. The other reason, the not told one, is the pressure coming from the IMF and WB (a bank praised as “እናት” by PMA) to privatize state owned enterprises and kick the state out from “meddling” in the economy. The pressure is not limited to the two institutions mentioned above. There are also Ethiopian intellectuals, professionals and elites that, some believe privatization public enterprises is a key factor for economic development, and some want to see a departure from an economic policy run by the former EPRDF.

People like ato Eyesuswork Zafu (founder and also former CEO of both ሕብረት ባንክ and ሕብረት ኢንሹራንስ) advocates for the sale and people like ato Kibur Gena (owner to Capital newsletter and served as chair person to AA Chamber of Commerce) questions the wisdom of rushing in selling

However, in my opinion we are not yet ready to sale our major public enterprises to foreign investors .

Because:
1. Getting foreign currency as a reason is not a genuine one:
a. The PM himself has told us many times that Ethiopia has got an increase in foreign currency during his tenure and if what he tells is true, there is no urgency in selling well profiting companies.
b. The solution for increasing foreign currency is vitally dependent on export and export by itself is dependent on political stability not on selling well doing enterprises.

2. Public enterprises are often criticized for not being efficient. Yes, most of the time they are not as efficient as the private one. However, some, like Ethio-telecom, are not as efficient as private companies, because, their main goal is not PROFIT. They have a purpose and duty to bring their basic services to all parts of the society even at the cost of a loss. Poverty could be sustained by a society, but EXCLUSION is a warrant for destabilization.

3. In my opinion, for now, Ethio-telecom’s capacity and technological expedience in providing services to the majority is enough. There is not much it lacks. Price wise, there is price reduction every other year. It also tries to be creative in offering customers cheap service packages. But, on the other hand, as long as the company is ours and the profit is re-invested for our development, the excess could be taken as citizen’s contribution.

4. In my country, where poor and backward societies are the overwhelming majority, for now, it is the government that is much trusted as a provider and a protector with all its faults.

5. As you have said, most officials, professionals and workers are poorly paid. They have economic obligations to sustain life and they have social pressure to maintain status. Therefore, they are highly susceptible to any corruption, especially a bribe and pressure coming from foreign investors whose only goal is maximizing profit at any cost. In a country weak in every sphere, there is also a potential in influencing political and economic policies.

6. At this point in time and for many years to come, we do not have confident, ethical and disciplined manpower as well as the capacity in establishing strong institutions that can manage monitoring big enterprises owned by foreign companies from evading taxes and siphoning money out of the country.

In conclusion, theories may help in entertaining alternative ideas, but pragmatic solutions based on realities on the ground are more effective in addressing challenges for there are some realities which are specific to a certain culture and thinking.

David Samson

Hi Kaddis,
What are the main reasons for state-owned companies to be sold to or turned into private hands or sector?
The answer largely depends on the decision-maker: is an Economist or a politician?

From classic textbook and purely economist point of view,
the drive for competition leads to efficiency and thereby result in low prices and increased choices for consumers. But these benefits assume there are many suppliers of the product and open competition.

Politicians, on the other hand, pursue privatisation for
purely ideological reasons. Those on the right political spectrum believe in Neo-classical market. “We need to roll back the state”, once said, Thatcher. They believe the market is the supreme and state suffers from bureaucratic, inefficiency and often these industries are often bailed out by the state subside.

Those on the left—mainly Keynesian Economist— have other
ideas. Their prime motive— at least on paper— is to protect jobs(By overmanning) and abuse of power by the private monopolist. Since their overall motive is to preserve jobs, they keep bailing out loss-making industries, often by taxpayer money and even by borrowings.

What is controversial is that why does a government sell
a profitable state-owned to a private sector? In other words, why does a government convert state monopoly to private monopoly? If a company is profitable and does not seek any fund from the state, selling it to Mr Private, without any competitor on the horizon, could lead to higher price and poor service. This does not make any sense, well, at least from pure economist point of view.

I could write pages on the history and experience of privatisation
in the UK, but this has little relevance to Ethiopia. We should use data and experience from similar countries in Africa.

What are the perceived benefits of privatisation?

Know-how and transferable skills: Little or negligible
benefits. Ethio telecom is not built from the ground. I do not see what new skills and knowledge could be transferable. May be 5G from Huawei.

Investment: This is one of the main reasons for inviting private
companies with a massive wallet. Ethio government does not have the resource to invest in new technology and infrastructure.

Ethio telecom is likely going to snatched by a multi-national
giant. We know that multi-national companies are not driven by sentimental emotions or national duties. They do not consider the host’s interests, nor are driven by the interest of its country of origin. The strategy is driven by motive: to maximise shareholders return.

We also need to notice that many National Airlines which
in the past sold to private hands had a terrible history. Alitalia is the prime example. Initially owned by the state, but turned in to private, only to re-nationalised.

I cannot think but the Medemer PM was pressurised by the
IMF and the likes to roll back the state frontiers.

Wishing him luck!

Kaddis

Hi David –
I replied to you under Semere’s post, if you dont mind and I agree in principle and explained why we need the capital the west successfully horded for almost a century now. Even Asia grew by the west capital and we need to have access to it.

Ismail AA

Selam Semere Tesfai,

The issue you have raised has for sometime been at the center of politics subsequent to change of guard at seat of power in Addis Ababa. The epicenter of national debate for change of direction has been going on between proponents of the hitherto operating developmental state stewardship of political economics challenged by open market liberal political economics.

As I can surmise from your implicit concern for national security, one can note the former can be better positioned to put safeguards to defend the still fragile and evolving of governance system as the general condition of Ethiopia projects.

Here, the communication system of a country is pretty sensitive, and can render a country still in business of establishing secure state institutions vulnerable. I think this is the point you are out to suggest. Anyway, this issue concerns our Ethiopian friends here in the forum. You and I would love to hear from friends like Amde, Fanti etc.

Mahmud Saleh

Selam Semere and all Awatistats; Ramadan Kerim
PM Abiy has to do what the donor institutions, particularly, WB & IMF advise him to get the financial assistance he desperately needs. Liberalizing the economy would be positive if the country’s economic performance indicated it. In the case of Telecom, though, I do not think it is time for Ethiopia to put it for sale. There are two hurdles in the way of privatizing the Telecom sector:
(1) massive unemployment: privatization tends to shade off jobs
(2) Ethiopia’s still boiling sociopolitical unrest comes to mind, where the media is becoming the new weapon for inciting violence. In that sense, privatized telecom would take away vital tools from the government in operating the sector in a way it becomes security-sensitive. Privatization will certainly improve competition and performance, though.
(3) If you are mentioning national security in connection to number two above, I agree. Otherwise, Ethiopia can have a privatized Telecom sector while keeping its national security networks secure.

Selam Mahmud Saleh
Welcome, privatization in ethiopia is not new things and not started by 3A, it had been there over 20 years, the decision to gradual privatization of all the gov owned companies was made 20 years ago and all the small and midsize companies has been privatized the last 20 years , the different is right now they r in a stage to privatize the bigger ones according to their own plans.

Kim Hanna

Selam Mahmud Saleh,

So nice to hear from you, so calm and so reasonable. I was away for a little while and when I came back to Awate to read, I missed your posts the most. Who is next, SAAY or Hayat, that is too much to ask.

As to the topic you are discussing, I am still in a learning mode and will sift through articles to see what is happening.
My default position is what Meles had said in the past in regard to the Banks, Ethiopian airlines and Telecom.
He said that these institutions are the cash cow of the state and he will continue to protect their status until they are strong enough to compete on par with other big international companies. Are we now strong enough to take this step, I don’t know but I don’t think so.

I should confess that i have little knowledge about privatization, the pros and cons, and if opening up Ethiotelecom is timely, pro-development, puts the country’s security in danger or not, and generally what Ethiopia has to gain or lose.

Nevertheless, i would like to say that certain facts on the ground may tell us why it may not be a bad idea to open the telecommunication business, although i wouldn’t have agreed with privatizing the EAL before the the pandemic, which was doing so great, but now severely battered as all airlines are. I don’t know if the new reality may bring EAL nearer to partial privatization due to the economic loss, which was already more than half a billion dollars about a month ago, according to the CEO.

-Internet and mobile coverage of the country is still a long way from being adequate. Internet service is very expensive in Ethiopia as it is all over Africa for that matter. Maybe more providers will bring the price down so that more people are connected.
-Only 40m Ethiopian have mobile connection, if i am not mistaken, out of 110m people. It is not possible to say that it is adequate.
-Because of the void in coverage of the country with services, in my opinion, at least in the first stage there will be job creation and not reduction.
-Better and country-wide services will help the development of the country. Afterall, hiding in one’s shell will not help in this globalised world, at least as long as it lasts, although Neoliberalism-globalization don’t seem to have a future.
-Security of the country is as good as the government which has the responsibility to protect it. Many countries have foreign companies which function within the country’s telecommunication service, and i don’t think that there is much of a problem.
-Again if foreign investors will pay taxes and they would not siphon money to offshore companies secretly depends on whether the government will do its best to avoid it or not, etc.

Mahmud Saleh

Selam Kim Hanna

Thanks for the warm welcoming. I agree with your viewpoint. More so, my concern is with what a privatized telecom could contribute to the social and political unrest, positively or negatively. I’m afraid it may exacerbate the situation. Of course, the government could put rules and regulations in place. Still , I would consider the idea of privatizing the telecom at this time is a bit ahead of its natural curve. But who am I to give a definitive verdict? It’s just my a hunch.

Ismail AA

Ahlen Sheikh Mahmoud,

Let me join others to welcome you back, and hope you will stay. Many, whom I really miss, have absconded from the forum for too long, and of course for reasons known to them and their creator, save Aman Hidrat a I should add. The hope is always to be for good reason (s). I should, as many for sure also do, hope others like Aman Hidrat Haile G, Yohannes Zerai, The queen of the debating arena (Hayat) the great SAAY, H. AL Arabi, Amde etc. Fine you have joined back. And, Ramadan Karim.

Mahmud Saleh

marHab ustaz Ismail AA

Thank you for the warm welcoming. I’ve been around, occasionally checking the forum. Thanks again. I hope you you’re doing well.

Abi

Hello Teg Vet Mahmud
Welcome back.
Glad to see you back. How are the boys?

Mahmud Saleh

Gashe Abi

Thank you. Glad to have exchanged few words with you, too. BTW, where is my boy, Nitrrickay?

Nitricc

Your Majesty; Although I follow you through a person who knows you and informed me that you are all well and kicking it but still it is great to see you one forum. Yes sir, the forum has become for Digital Weyane playground. Some who we thought they were Eritreans has the best interest of the nation came clean and turns out to be they are nothing but flecked, paid, Tigryan and active members of Digital weyane. They kept bombarding this Forum about the death of PIA and their paid, white and washed up journalist came out and told them the MAN they killed so many times is well, alive and kicking. And now they are in disbelieve and in a great shock. Hopefully this forum will get some break till in two years they will kill the man again. The filthy TPLF thugs and their stupid Digital ARMY; they Kill PIA so many times, no one going to believe when PIA checks out for real. We all going to say, here we go again that fake news from Digital weyane. Glad to see you sir, stay well my great man.

Paulos

Selam NewDawn and All,

I would think “NewDawn” is new to Awate for we have discussed “Eugenics” several times before in fact ad-nauseam I might add. But of course, it doesn’t seem to let up and we might as well revisit it if you will.

If we have to see it from different angles, perhaps the Philosophy of History might give us a better perspective when the enquiry is necessitated to examine the forces behind history. That again depends on Schools of Thoughts. Marxist point of view, for instance argues a class struggle between the haves and the have-nots as the main drive of history and on the other hand, Marx’s mentor and predecessor–Hegel argues, “Recognition” as the main engine behind the forces of history. And if we want more perspectives, a caricature of Hegel’s “Recognition” is enforced by the “Will” when Schopenhauer argued for it. And finally, Freud further refined “Recognition” and the “Will” in his famous but partially defunct forces of personality where one of them is the “Ego.”

But the question still remains: If nations fight against each other for Recognition; if societies fight amongst each other for Recognition; if individuals fight against each other for Recognition? Who is going to stand up for the weak and the vanquished? Cain retorted back, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” when God asked him the whereabouts of his brother Abiel. Furthermore, the moral challenge is, should we devise a mechanism to create a stronger society where the weak are recognized in equal terms or should we parrot Cain’s retort instead?

Here is an argument that can lend “credence” to the exponents of “Soft Eugenics” and that debunks the hypocrisy of the opponents—The smallest and the shortest of the forty six human chromosomes is chromosome 21. But it is not only with fewer genes in it comparing with the others but it is the only chromosome that can survive if it happens to have three copies instead of the normal two–[Chromosomes come in pairs.] That is to say that, if the rest of the chromosomes have three copies, the fetus doesn’t survive. But if the fetus is born with three copies of chromosome-21, the fetus survives but with a condition called, “Dawn’s Syndrome.” It happens most of the time when the mother is older when she conceives. They have unique facial feature, including limited mental capacity and Alzheimer’s disease in their late thirties where they usually die from at that early age.

Sadly however, parents sometimes choose to abort the pregnancy upon owning that, it has Dawn’s Syndrome and one equally argues if that is a form of “Eugenics.” Moreover, If one wonders that ugly mechanism hits home as well when we pass judgements on those መን ትምርዓዎስ መን ይምርዓዋ ትምርዓዎ when we select our partners for life based on good-looks and other “stellar” attributes as well. Again, one wonders if they are small scale “Eugenics.” When there is ambiguity and equivocation in the issue, in reality however, Eugenics in one form or another doesn’t have and shouldn’t have any place in a morally just world.

Ismail AA

Selam Dr. Paulos,

Assuming NewDawn in not what you described him to be in your maiden, if I may, reaction to his post, and he is in fact what Kim Hanna has taken him to be a man of science, I am one of the individuals here who anticipate he would be happy to catch the bait you have thrown by way of this rather robust response and defend his views. I did not miss the right address when I wrote that what NewDawn posted would provoke you as an intellectual challenge because such matters need men of knowledge and skill to handle the properly so that enthusiatic amateurs like me can get reasonable understanding.

It is of course a bit worrisome because we should be focusing in this forum on the current unsettling condition in our country. Nonetheless, curiosity enforces itself on people when such controversial issues find their way to this space. Thus, as I usually do when I encounter matters I do not possess capacity to tackle, let me pose a question to you, sir, and NewDawn; anyone in the forum can also contribute:

Since selection in general entails elimination to get a small qualitative few at the expense of quantitative many, would not we eventually the end up in extinction of the specie ? I mean to say the more we select the lesser and lesser number we will produce until we reach a stage where we would not have anything left to select from.

Paulos

Selam Kbur Haw Ismail AA,

Your sense of humility is inspiring to say the least where a true intellect like yourself humbles himself among those of us who pretend instead.

As you know, one of the profound insights of Charles Darwin was when he keenly observed the vivid variations among species where the variation is in response to the ever changing environment. As such, those who adopt to the changes would be selected but those who fail to change would be selected against–the core of “Natural Selection.” The point is then, why would we select on our own volition when nature is doing the selection for us?

But if we are to push the idea of selection a bit deeper and further we see nature at work in tandem with reason. Consider this: When a young man reaches puberty, he would have 100 million sperm cells and when he knows a woman [as we say it ምስ ፈለጣ in Tigrinya], only one out of the 100 million sperm cells fertilizes the egg. It is a fierce competition among the other sperm cells that the strongest and the fastest sperm cell hits and fertilizes the egg. In a sense, everyone of us is a product of a selected [strongest and fastest] among millions which were equally competent. Again, why would we want “Artificial Selection” when we have a “Natural Selection” for our advantage that would enable us to live in this otherwise Hobbesian world which is short and brutish? That is where the infamous Eugenics came into the picture with a historical context.

As I tried to comment upon it in my previous post, Herbert Spencer popularized Eugenics but the true father of Eugenics was Francis Galton who was also the first cousin of Charles Darwin. He was the opposite of Darwin in many ways including in demeanor where Darwin was more conserved, methodical and conventional, where as, Galton was intellectual dilettante and a showman where he explored South Africa, studied twins, collected statistics and dreamed of Utopian society, for instance. The danger he posed was precisely because he turned the brilliant ideas in Darwinism–Evolution, Natural Selection and the power of Variation through Mutation–into a dangerous political creed where Nazis and other Fascists were conceived and born out of. And that is the reason, human folly veiled in scientific enquiry ought to be rein-in with moral imperatives including Eugenics.

Thank you so much for those kind words. I am humbled to say the least.

Kbur Haw Ismail AA is unique in many ways where he dwarfs amongst us when he is in fact a giant. I sure never had the chance of knowing him in person but he is a kind of person with enormous emotional stability where frequent provocations in this Forum hardly impact his sense of judgement and empecable humility as well. God bless!

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Doterre,
When I say ከምትፈልጦ መዓስ ጋግየዮ, I don’t mean you know Ismael AA. I meant my about my respect toward you.
Just in case you misunderstood me…..

Doterre,
ቀስ ኢለ ናባይ ክስሕበኪ ‘የ ሳሕበይ 🙂
If it is true, I am hearing AAA is in Asmara. Again, if that’s true, something is really cooking….
As far as I know, no country leader is traveling out of their countries these days.

Doterre,
I have few friends who idolize the devil [well, what can I say? I am equal opportunity employer 🙂 ] and I can tell you they have sleepless nights these days. These are people who I lost hope to convince them this devil we have is probably exceeds the Satan we are familiar in the wholly books.
As you mentioned before, we will wait till May 24th.

Paulos

ኢንጂኔረ,

Very true. We will find out on May 24 if Alena Media and others were right all along or they have been played ኒክ ብማሉ ብባዶ ሰለስተ simply because particularly Alena sounds convinced.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Doterre,
I hope Alena wins this time!
I like the guy. He is cool headed. Another thing I like about ረድኢ መሓሪ, he masters Tigrigna writing. A lot of idioms and ምስላ!
I also believe he is the interconnect of Eritrean societies.
He admits, most of his knowledge is Shaebia based but his common sense is decent, to say the least.

Paulos

ኢንጂኔረ,

I agree!

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Doterre,
[ምዃን’እኳ ዋላ ነተን ደገፍቱ እዩ ሸሊሑወን ዘሎ: ከሪቡ ከይከውን ሸሪአን ኣለዋ]. I completely agree.
He knows that these so called followers have no principle and he hates their guts. He knows that most of them do not like him but they scared of him. ዘራጣት!
Now, his plan is, thanks to his buddy Covid-19, to bankrupt them.

Paulos

ኢንጂኔረ,

Back in the days, ብግዜ እኒእኒ ሕምባሻ’ኸሎ እምኒ ማለተይ እየ–Gedab News used to bring us scoops of this magnitude but now ሓንጊዳ ሕሩመይ’ኢላ ኣብያህና!

Saleh Johar

Paulos,
Gedab gave the guys time to learn but no can do. That is how real news is burned out. But I said this is lazy journalism by those who should know and amateurish reporting by those who have no clue. Yet, we all pay the price. It’s disappointing after all these years we have not learned much

In any case, I am glad he is alive so that he won’t have it easy but faces people’s justice al’a Nuremberg 2.0 if you will.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

ዶተረ:
ገዳብ ምብቃቕ ካብ ትጅምር ሓጺር ግዜ ‘ይኮነን 🙂

Saleh Johar

Paulos,
I personally said that multiple times in several platforms but in one instance a newbie told me I am misinformed and not following events 🙂 Okay, and I am waiting for the Ouch moment hoping they learn from it. But I doubt many will.

Retail news services is wreaking havoc and the retailers preach transparency and accountability yet they are unwilling to humble themselves and learn the ropes of journalism. Gedab took a little break to stay away from the madness because there is no use trying to correct people if they are damn sure of what they are disseminating and do not realize the damage. Worse, this is not misinformation, it is disinformation by other entities. Sorry, I can only say that much for now…

Then there is the nose-edge temper of our colleagues who are so defensive and I already have enough enemies by telling them their journalism sucks 🙂

To its credit,The TN /,aka “Enda Siwwa”,clarified it by giving details of what you stated before.

Apparently, the clause by the evil British Embassy saying” …. due to the rapidly situation in….”, was found to be a generic one it uses by pasting it in every Travel Advisory Statements!

“ Due to the rapidly changing situation in Ethiopia….. in the Sudan….. in Rwanda…”

The PFDJ and its officials directly accused the embassy for confusing people by stating the vague generic clauses they sneak in!

Saleh Johar

Sultan,
This is one of those moments where I agree with you. Leaving the British alert aside, it was mischievously copied and spread with the usual intention in mind. To create confusion. I traced it to Tigrayinline. Also, all the Isaias is dead news and what followed has similar intelligence disinformation motive. It has reached a level where I am questioning if decency will serve our cause anymore. I am having second thoughts. I can only be assured if the elements unleashing their attack on our society are contained. It’s obvious where they are being organized and funded.

Sultan M.G.

Spot on Your Excellency!
Glad we are on the same page, finally.
Those of us, who have been chasing and blaming the Digital WeyAne, have been ahead of their toxic agenda and propaganda against ERITREA and Eritreans.
Martin Plaut and BBC Tigrinya program have been on the new lead for such an uncalled for destructive propaganda, which is easy for you to prove and confirm.
Then the Trolls like Assenna,
“Asmarino”.Com,and the satellite mercenaries like JStudio and other mini-social media Warriors will add spices to what the BBC and the TOL have to say!

We Eritreans and Eritrea are victims of a non-ending perpetual war by those well organized and funded propagandists.

Mr.Aregay Hagos,an X-EPLF Freedom fighter,has effectively DETERRED most of them from his Seattle little office!

Credited well Ms Tegadalit Haregu of Radio Erena for challenging and refuting such a toxic propaganda by the same Digital WeyAne Agents.

Granted, those of you with well founded background , experience and formidable websites HAVE an obligation to stand up firm for Eritrea and against those toxic propagandists with evil agenda against Eritrea and Eritreans.
We can’t ignore such big cyber wars with a dangerous outcome.

Paulos

Selam Aya Saleh,

I agree. There seem to be two Eritreas where one is the actual Eritrea and the other one is a surreal one that exists in everyone’s mind where we navigate it to our delight so much so that it creates its own reality. And more often than not the actual Eritrea and the other Eritrea which is the product of our own over-active imagination do not synch. And we suffer disillusionment as the result.

That said however, not sure if you have watched the TV hit drama series “Game of Thrones.” In it every time the rivalry between the Kingdoms—the Starks and Lannisters gets ugly and every time the Starks get cornered, one of them would ask, “What do we say to the God of death?” And the other would say, “Not today.” I guess the guy in Asmara will exit when heavens say, it is time.

Paulos

ኢንጂኔረ,

Martin Plaut is reporting that Isaias has been spotted strolling around his fav dams. That info is corroborated by Arbi Harnet from Asmara. I guess we don’t have to wait till May 24. Isaias 1 and Alena 0 [ኡኖ ኣ ዜሮ]. Let’s wait for a second round and hope next time around Alena and others get it right. And I really hope this is the last lesson for all of us, however.

As you pointed out Eugenics is an old concept, an ancient one for that, from the times of Plato.

There is this story from ancient Greece. There was the most beautiful woman of the times, and at the same time lived the greatest philosopher, but with one caveat, he was ugly in his looks. Nevertheless, the woman was very much attracted by his teachings and his great mind.

One day after hearing his teachings, she approaches him and makes a suggestion, that she has an idea to have a child with him. The philosopher patiently continued to listen. She said, if our child takes my beauty and your great mind, we will have produced the greatest person the world has ever seen, who is both beautiful and a genius.

He couldn’t believe the naivety of the foolish woman. He asks her in his turn. What would you say, if the child takes my ugly face and your stupid mind. Don’t you think that we will be doing disservice to our society? That was an example of eugenics in practice.

Eugenics has always been in the mind of human beings. It has always been in nature, whether it is called survival of the fittest, spontaneous abortion due to genetic problems, or otherwise. Nevertheless, implementing it to create mentally superior human and not healthy human beings, is asking for trouble. It is said that genius and madness are the two sides of the same coin. The middle way, the way of nature, is always the best.

NewDawn

South Yemen has just declared self-determination. If south Yemen is to be separated. What does this mean for the Hannish islands that were declared to be yemen in 1998, before a brief battle in 1995 that resulted in Eritrean control over the islands. I’am of the belief the islands are ours, and Were wrongfully given to Yemen under the influence of Washington. Should Eritrea call for renegotiations over the islands?

Nitricc

When PMAA went Asmara for the first time, he couldn’t help but wonder why the picture of Camel is every were. Even the Camel was displayed in PIA private home and PMAA couldn’t help it to notice. Ever since, PMAA start thinking. How could be the land of the lions, Ethiopia defeated by Camels? He was ashamed and embarrassed to display those lions that are in 4-killo all over the government offices. The more he thought about it, the more emotionally taxing it got. Then he was forced to remove the lion and replace it with Pikake shocking the world. I know why PMAA did that but why Pikake? As far as I know there is any connection between Ethiopia and Pikakes. Do you know by whom pikake is represented? I know the Tigryans showed us that their emblem is a Donkey; I am not kidding. I seen a donkey painted the ugly colors of TPLF flag. Not to be outdone, PMAA came up with Pikake. Ethiopia is very strange country but this one PMAA gets it right. How is it possible lions to be your emblem while you can’t even defeat a few terrorists in a pick truck and in flip flop shoes? There is one good out of this Pikake looks nice, is not? lol

NewDawn

Selam all, down below there was some discussions on why african countries have not succeeded, the typical example being nigeria. Could it possibly be that africans on a collective basis do not possess the intelligence to build modern functioning country’s, on par with western countries and some Asian countries. To still blame colonialism for the failures of African countries is a patheic defense mechanism, one which is barricade for success.

When you want to shape human evolution, you have to create a selective pressure. If you want the genes for intelligence to proliferate within your population, Eugenics is a sound solution , this doesn’t mean it will be done in a profoundly immoral and wicked way ala Nazism. There is hard eugenics and soft eugenics. Hard Eugenics would be to sterilise those that are deemed not intelligent enough or to restrict them to a one child policy. Soft eugenics would involve making it government policy to encourage reproduction among the brightest members through targeted subsidies and discourage reproduction among the least brightest members e.g incarceration. Singapore did this. There is strong correlation between IQ and the wealth of nation.

This what i would do if i was called to be president of Eritrea, the aphorism that the source of a nation’s wealth is the skill of its people holds significant weight in my book. The brain drain that African countries face is a massive problem that needs to be sorted out rapidly with great care and efficiency. The quality of education and preventative health care ought to be at very high standards.

Ismail AA

Selam NewDawn,

The nickname seem to have been done by selection. The words “new” and “dawn” project positive tone – at face value level of course. Yet the message appears to suggest to engineer population through selection – apparently profound statement but dangerous at the same time. It cries for serious debate. However, it requires full identification of the entry’s owner; real name and not nickname. Saleh Johar warned just yesterday that if one doesn’t know some stuff, he/she better desist from getting messed with it. He has a point, doesn’t he! Anyways, people with knowledge such as Dr. Paulos have been challenged. Let us wait and learn.

Paulos

Selam NewDawn,

That is the kind of idea a teenager brings over to impress his or her friends when mouthful or flowery words appear appealing to a curious mind. Thank you but no thank you. I wonder why the Moderators let you post it for it is garbage.

NewDawn

Selam Paulos, those are very harsh words. One of the greatest thing about this site , that has pulled me in, is its openness. You see PfdJ supporters and opposition members with Ethiopian members. I dont see why the moderators should delete my post , i have remained respectful. I’m not a teenager, but i can certainly say i possess a curious mind and everyone ought try to foster a curious mind. There are a-lot of benefits that come with one. Try to see my point with an open mind, this isnt some garbage i simply conjured up in my mind. China has embraced embryo selection and genetic editing. Whether its a bunch of rubbish or not, i think it is worth a discussion.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Selam NewDawn,
Forget about those people with one-cell but Dr Gidewon has a PhD and still supports Isayas. How is that correlated to your theory?

The guy you mentioned probably got advanced degrees in Mathematics but what does it mean at the end of the day? Not much really. He chose Mathematics for a reason only known to him. Perhaps he felt more at ease with numbers as opposed to other areas of knowledge. That is all there is to it. That is to say that, what ever choice he makes including supporting a morally corrupted regime, doesn’t give him the license to have known better than the rest of us on account that he has degrees on whatever.

Paul
Last time I saw የከተማ ጨጋር ዳንጋ ጌድዮን አባይ he was wearing a shiny black ሼዳ. I don’t know why he keeps mixing አቃቂ ሰበቃ with ናቅፋ.
You know he went to a boarding school at አቃቂ.

Nitricc

Somebody told that school was for the best of best students. is that true? I forgot the name though. It is funny some fake people questioning his pedigree.

Teodros Alem

Selam Nitricc
i don’t know about now but it was a boarding school and boring school and was not that expensive either and run by Adventist church(kind of penta).

Nitricc

Hey Teddy; this guy was telling me that was the best school back then. Okay thanks for the info.

Teodros Alem

Selam Nitricc
I know enough about that school, The best schools in ethiopia at derg time were ics, san ford, lycee gebre mariam, natherat school(for women) , san Joseph(for man) and so on.
Akake “mission” was a boarding school and was ok but not the best.

Simon Kaleab

Abi,

Beseka, not Sebeka.

Abi

Hi Simon
Thanks for the correction. It was a slip of a finger.

Teodros Alem

abi
Tella, did u say ” akake seboka”, man r u for real from addis? Or u like to twist words for some reason.

Abi

Hello TA
I have to admit you are flying high.

Teodros Alem

abi
i have to say what a Q and the answer is u r flying because of ur nature.

Simon Kaleab

Selam NewDawn,

Who will supervise the Eugenics program? Super intelligent people such as Isaias, Maduro, Kim [Nor-Ko], chairman Xi?

The whole idea is a slippery slope. Forget it!

NewDawn

Selam Simon. It Shall be run by whoever is deemed fit enough. Encouraging intelligent members to reproduce through targeted subsidies and promoting high quality education and preventative health care is not a difficult task and wont lead us on to the same path of Nazis as some others believe. Promoting higher intelligence and reading is an aspect aswell. This is a very scaled back approach from eugenics, which i’ve come to understand is incredibly to enforce.

Simon Kaleab

Selam NewDawn,

I think you are musing with a half-baked idea.

Do you think you and your family are intelligent enough to escape being on the wrong side of a Eugenics program?

David Samson

Selam NewDawn,

Not topic should be off any limit. I do not know if you are aware nowadays petitions are circulating on the social media platforms. The opposition and the Yeakil groupie are trying to pressurise Google and FB to block any decimation of information from two people. One with a Christian and the other with a Muslim name. Their arguments are these two chaps are inciting violence and hatred against Eritreans’ Religious and Ethnic groups, and therefore no platforms should be given to them. This political gimmick is not new. When one extremist pops out, many Eritreans start to get panic and react in hysteria and extreme way. Why? It is highly likely because we are conditioned to think in a certain way and any deviation from our norm goes above our head.

My main concern is not whether or if these petitions will lead to anywhere. It is rather disturbing to imagine life in Eritrea if these people turned out to be the main power brokers.

Back to your topic.

I do not think the IQ ranking works in practice. Let us take for instance Singapore. It has experienced a second spike on the infection rate of the Corona Virus. This has arisen mainly from the migrant communities— mostly are from the surrounding Countries. It has all the undesirables Dalits on its books, according to your theory.

If every citizen in Singapore has the desired IQ, who is going to do all the dirty, less desirable work? It must be somebody unless of course, you have a country built entirely on AI and Robots. The IQ itself ends up in ranking You end up in a vicious circle.

Japan had resisted immigration for generation for fear of losing its homogeneity. The Robots could not replace home-care workers. Japan has swallowed its pride and had begun letting emigrants, mainly from Brazil and
Peru.

Ismail AA

Selam David Samson (hope this is your real name),

In principle you have got a point. Yes indeed, no topic should be off limits. But, I am sure you agree that not all topics are haphazardly relevant to any space in purpose and substance. Every topic has its proper platform or instrument of exposure and dissemination. I mean a topic in one of the pure science disciplines has no place in a space designated to suit political, social or aesthetic discourses. In fact, there are specialized journals and forums for all specialisations each on its own right.

Now, a point or two in regard to NewDawn’s entry is what he had tabled is so controversial, and has nothing to do with the purpose and intent of this forum, hoping he had cared to gaze at the leading slogans at the top of the screen or been so diligent to go through the posting guidelines.

Science of selection related to human beings or populations raise serious concern. It is a call for neo-Darwinism extended to racial ideologies of which humanity has terrible memories. Shall we need to remind ourselves about de defunct national socialism that produced racist and disastrous movements infamously remembered as Nazism and fascism- two terms that had the same purpose and conviction.

One passing point, if I may. The rogue gentlemen you have referred to and the voice that express concern and moved to contain them from continuing to spread poison that could have disastrous consequences to the unity of our evolving polity, which has already enough outstanding problems made worse under the current dictatorship, cannot in any way be related or stretched to post dictatorship politics of governance. The rationale that govern opposition to poison spreading efforts of the individuals you mentioned is repulsiveness and abhorrence of their message. I think no sane Eritrean mind would miss the intent if those chaps.

Saleh Johar

NewDawn and all,

Have you watched “The Boys From Brazil” or “Forgiving Dr. Mengele”? I think the two movies is pertinent to your view. Not everything should be seen from the view of humanity. In a time when many people are revolting against God, do you think adventurous scientists should be bestowed with blessing to act as gods? The difference is beyond selfish worldly interests and visions, it is about morality. I don’t think treading the the path of the Nazis is a good idea. They tried it and it produced the holocaust.

NewDawn

Selam Saleh Johar, I do not know why my link was erased from my post, i thought of it to be a good read. The morality perspective is a good angle to look at my views. The truth is this, its going to be used either way ( i have highlighted china are doing the same). In a just world, no one would have created nukes that are able to extinguish a whole city with a push of a button. A smarter, healthier and more educated populace benefits everyone, i do not think of to be a selfish act to endeavour for such a situation. Again the nazis comparison is not a good one, im not pursuing to extinguish certain ‘races’ from eritrea.

Saleh Johar

NewDawn,
No outside links are allowed in weekdays. This is the norm here.

NewDawn

Saleh, thanks for the information. May i ask why no outside links are allowed in weekdays?

Saleh Johar

NewDawn,
It’s abused. Commercials, spam, etc. and we do not have resources to monitor all.

Selam NewDawn,
It really is unbelievable when you say that Africans on a collective basis do not possess the intelligence, and you tell us that the white man is your superior human being. It is demeaning and demonizing, especially when it comes from an African and a black man, if you are one. Worshipping the white man or mimicking the crimes committed by them, will take Africans nowhere, because whether they like it or not black people never were and never will be in the white supremacists equation.
Africans possessing lower IQ than the white man is unfounded and racist. The genius white man as you say, has not brought a world where human beings have prospered together and the future is made secure for the human species. On the contrary, he has created a world its future is bleak, lives under the fear of a nuclear holocaust, a world where one day a virulent virus will escape from his laboratory and will annihilate human beings from the face of the world. Here is the reality with us today with the Covid-19 pandemic, only that we don’t seem to understand it.
At the time when humanity is trying to forget the inhumanity of the Nazis, you are prescribing a similar recipe in this 21st century.
You are more or less saying that Africans are at a lower level of human evolution and development compared to white people. Development for you is material riches, and you don’t want to ask, at the expense of which people. The preditory instinct of white people, is what he acquired from nature as all animals, during their evolution, only that he manifests it without a limit. Human beings are meant to control their criminal and greedy ways, which unfortunately is backwardness for some.
There is not much difference from what you say and the Nazis said and did. There are still the skulls of more than 2000 Namibians in the basement of a Berlin museum. They were people murdered by the Nazis to study and proof the superiority of the white race, to which you ascribe.
Eugenic is a racist ideology by the supremacist white guys, which doesn’t include black people. It is meant for the superior white race by excluding those who are supposed to be inferior, that doesn’t include you, if you are black.
There is no morality whatsoever in trying to create a superior race of white people or black, which is not going to do any good for human beings in general. The message is written on the wall. If you think that it includes black people, you are making a big mistake. The Nazis sterilised handicapped people, as you are suggesting now, they sterilised men and women born from a mixed marriage (relation) between Germans and Africans, and you are prescribing a similar thing more than 70 years after the demise of Nazism and fascism. What remains is to bring back the concentration camps and mass extermination.
Calling for generic manipulation (eugenics) to produce superhuman Africans, is simply not knowing the African reality, and not knowing what those who entertain eugenics have in mind.
In my opinion, you are ready to bring Nazism to Eritrea with the aim to create superhuman Eritreans, if you are given the chance. One can imagine the number of people that could be eliminated by this selective breeding of Eritreans, because they don’t fulfill the criteria you have in mind. This will make DIA an angel, when compared with you. Fortunately, it will never happen.
Lastly, you say that eugenics should not be carried out in the Nazis immoral way, while you are prescribing exactly the same methods and with the same outcome. That doesn’t make your ways any less racist, supremacist and far right. You are ready to sacrifice a portion of human beings for the sake of creating wealth, which after all will serve the one percent of the rich at the expense of the 99%, as it happens today. While you speak of the African brain drain, how could you degrade the intelligence of Africans at the same time?

Nitricc

It really is unbelievable when you say that Africans on a collective basis do not possess the intelligence, and you tell us that the white man is your superior human being.

Horizon then you tell me; why is your country, with organic land, abundance of water, with young and populace go Hungary?. The whites confused you with human right and BS democracy; while you guys argue and fight with it, the whites took everything. the truth is what it is, African are ….. you know!

The difference between your country you never set foot and my country is that my country doesn’t hide its problems like yours. When you were forced to eat sheep suffering from foot-mouth disease donated by Australia, you were quick to justify that there is no problem with that, to protect your ego. Half of your people are in refugee camps fed by the UNHCR. Go east and see how people live in Eritrean villages and refugee camps in Ethiopia and Sudan first, before you talk. Eritrea is not your neighborhood in the USA.

No one has ever seen a black man like you who feels inferiority complex for being black, and spews poison on Africans with every opportunity. Everybody on this site knows. If you have a problem with your skin color, do a DNA ancestry test. You may find some exotic genes, and like the lady who was celebrating the fact that she had few Jewish genes and went crazy out of happiness, you may do the same thing if you find some exotic genes. Then you could say, “under my black skin, i have some white man’s genes”.

Paulos

Selam Horizon,

Right after the Adwa-War victory, it was not only the powerful nations were in shock but the Scientific community as well where the established dogma was based on a stratum where Caucasians at the top, Mongoloids in the middle and N*groids at the bottom with respect to intelligence. It was a time when Herbert Spencer–a staunch Darwinian–perhaps more Darwinian than Darwin himself when he came up with “Survival of the Fittest” which is wrongly attributed to Darwin instead who had also popularized the infamous “Eugenics.”

The Europeans including the Scientific community didn’t have any other explanation to the historical “anomaly” or “glitch”, only to say that, Ethiopians must had been Caucasians but got blackened due to intense Sun light otherwise they couldn’t have defeated the White-Italians if they were purely “N*groid.” Regrettably and sadly the same people are peddling the same racist affronts in this day and age as well.

As you know, we are not only sophisticated and complex species but we are the only species with one species. Let me put that in a perspective. For instance, with in the Ape species, we have Chimps, Gorillas, Baboons and Orangutans. But in the Human species we don’t have that kind of variations or sub-species. We are one and only one H*mo-Sapiens species. As the name implies, “Sapiens” is a Latin word for “Wise.” We are all one and we are all wise.

As I tried to comment on a similar topic the other day, all the Scientific progress attributed to the West traces its origins in the East including Mathematics which is the foundations of major Scientific discoveries. Einstein might have come up with the idea of Relativity, for instance, but that doesn’t make him more intelligent than the rest of us but more imaginative instead but again, the profound idea didn’t occur to him in a day or so but in years and an African might have thought about it and asked himself or herself what light might look like to him or her if he or she were to travel alongside light but that person might not have pursued the enquiry but Einstein obviously did.

Again, the point is that, it is not about what one knows about abstract ideas, it is about what other factors are involved for someone to have a deeper insight. Certainly it is not that one race is far more intelligent than the other. As for IQ, it is subjective. It doesn’t mean anything.

Teodros Alem

Selam paulos
agree but the other day u said ” the question is why Nigerian(a country that can export 20 something billion dollars within a few months) migrates to other countries to be a house workers” ? as far as i know everybody is asking same question with different angle.

Nitricc

Horizon; sorry to wake you up from your day care gathering but listen to this and I believe you that you bagging people hide nothing. I agree. Moda, wait for this good noting neftegna to listen to the clip and then you can delete it. sometimes they need to be told and told the truth.

Selam Nitricc
Sometimes i wonder how u think? What makes u think this kind of trash ugly whor individuals opinion mean something? how is that a country refere as “sharmuta”,? why u think she is talking amharic if her message is for tigrains? Mainly the reason why i don’t like abi, is because he play cheap, thr lowest level and ….

Nitricc

Hey Teddy; I know it is garbage but I just wanted him to know where his country is going and stop to warry about Eritrea. So, I was trying to make a point to this blind dude. I agree it is test-less. my apology but I just wanted him to know where his country is going and he stop bragging. it is sick.

Teodros Alem

Selam Nitricc
I know these guys r shameless liars but u have to know these people opinion don’t represent ethiopia, these people opinion is “hodam’ cadre opinion and i don’t think they care about ethiopia either, they care only for their stomachs.

Teodros Alem

horizon
2 things, 1, the Lebanese guy that wants to sale the Nigerian woman is arrested by the Lebanese gov.
2, there r no even one africa country ,including the Caribbean countries that can build economically and politically strong country and asking this question why Africans as a society can’t build strong countries don’t make anybody racist. u may have saw few successful africans individuals in every filed but as a country all sub Saharan countries(including Caribbean countries) r at the bottom of the world.
Note, some small countries like Botswana, equatorial gene. they r not strong Nations, they r nature(oil, diamond) blessed nations with a very small population.

David Samson

Selam Tedros,
Africans who left the continent and now live in the west spend their time blaming the white men day and night, thus did not get around to do their homework. This include people who gloat and brag about their history.

Teodros Alem

Selam david samson
They have been blaming white, dead persons and so on for over 100 years and funny thing is they don’t ever question themselves.
They r doing as the saying “The point is doing same thing over and over again expecting different results”.

NewDawn

Selam Horizon, From your writings i sense strong feelings have been evoked from my post. You have to face the truth, that Africa as a whole is an embarrassment and a failure. To live under someones foot, is the biggest embarrassment peoples/country can take. The whole of Africa was conquered by europeans and was subject to abuse. Even indians who in their entirety, conquered by a small island 5,000 miles have the cheek to look down on africans. Lets not forget most of their people live in abject poverty to add fuel to the fire

Europeans are not perfect human beings, they have committed their share of crimes. But Africans are not free from crimes against humanity either, i’m sure your familiar with the Rwandan genocide, any people are capable of committing atrocities. Or even the bantu expansion. But if we get down to it, they have built successful countries, the most powerful nation is a european creation. Among other things such as science and inventions, its clear who;s in the lead.

The methods are not similar at all, the outcome however is. Soft eugenics is what i advocate for, which entails encouraging reproduction among the brighter members of society through targeted subsidies and discourage it among the least brightest members. I never suggested putting those not deemed suitable enough in concentration camps

Admitting your failures and taking responsibility, is the first for overcoming problems and finding solutions. Even if they are cold bitter pills to swallow.

Kim Hanna

Selam NewDawn,

I know this is not a topic the management of the Awate University encourage but just the same they allowed it.
We had a similar discussion over a year or two ago. We left it the way we began without any understanding. Emotion.

I remember I posted something along the line of …is it really that significant or important in our predicament.
I exited that discussion by pointing out even if the premise is true, is it that significant in the scheme of things.
I brought SAAY’s name to the front and said that in my…. book of intelligence measurement, I believed SAAY to to be smarter than 96% of Asians, 97% of whites and 99% of Blacks. I got out of it with that statement. My book was never published.

I think what you are saying is to take it to the next step and encourage SAAY to have more kids (like a dozen) and discourage Teodros ….. to have fewer or none at all.
I have no problem with that.

I understand the emotions, if a white man tells me what you are telling me I will go Horizon on him, Nazis and all.
In my old neighborhood, a local elementary school dropout said when we talked about Africans as ” NATURE YEGODAW SEW”
The more time changes the more it stays the same.
I sense NewDawn is a science man and a logical man I hope he participates in a more down to earth, bread and butter, topic of future discussions, like the most recent article suggest. I look forward reading you.

There were no previous precedents similar to what happened in Africa, when European colonialists came to the continent, with deceit and hearts full of crime. Africans couldn’t foresee what awaited them. European colonialists carried the Bible in one hand and a gun in the other.
Material development and moral and ethical civilization are not the same. The white man came to Africa with sophisticated weapons to kill and plunder. Nevertheless, morally and ethically, he was a barbarian and deceitful.

When Ethiopians fought the Italian Invaders with the little means they had, others were on the side of the white man. If there is to condemn, this is the one, when an African becomes a colonizer standing on the side of the white man, and not the victims, the children of a lesser god.

Simply, you take out different factors that have made Africans what they are today, backward and divided. Some of these are, human and geopolitical factors, and the fact that human beings can be bought with money to betray their country and people etc. This is true for African leaders. Be sure, behind every crime and genocide that have happened in Africa, there was the white man as a conspirator and provider of arms, whether it was in Rwanda or elsewhere.

If Europeans had left alone Africans completely, do you think that they would be worse than what they are today? They might have achieved their own development by themselves. Necessity is the mother of inventions. It is true for all human beings, and not only for the white man.

Can you say that all science is meant to serve human beings? Science that has improved human life is to be supported, and science that is meant to destroy human life or enslave it, are to be abhorred. We can’t take science for the sake of science.

Eugenics, soft or hard, is what brought the Jewish Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma ethnic group at the hands of the Nazis and the WWII in which more than 50m Europeans were killed.

Every creation has the right to life. Human beings can not play the role of God, by sterilizing the unfortunate and black women included, as it happened in the USA, without their knowledge and consent. For example, it doesn’t mean that a blind man will transmit his blindness to his offspring. Today science gives the possibility for prenatal diagnosis and preimplantation genetic testing, to see if the embryo has a disease or not. You don’t have to do selective breeding, as if human beings are horses or some other animal, and bar other human beings from having offspring, because they don’t fulfill criteria of cleverness set by people who see themselves as superior creatures.

How can you tell that the person you call the brightest is not at the same time the worst criminal on earth? As a child, Albert Einstein was the dumbest of the family, according to their servant. Under your criteria, he might not have passed your test of a clever child, and what he discovered might have been lost to humanity.

We can’t categorize the world as black and white, the clever and the dumb, etc, only. This planet cannot be the home of the superior human beings and the demigods, who can decide on who should live and propagate and who should not. This is how horrendous crimes happen, as we saw in WWII.

Paulos

Selam My Good People,

They say, ብተመን ተነኽሰስ ብልሕጺ ተዳህለ! Most of the notable Eritrean websites are treating the “News about Isaias’ whereabouts” like a Leper-Colony if you will where particularly Assenna had been played before as Asmarinos would say it ኒክ ብማሉ by ባዶ ሰለስተ a few years back. But this time around for a valid reason, it didn’t want to take the tempting bait but shrewdly it has translated Martin Plaut’s take about the current situation when the latter published–a day or two ago—on his Eritrea-Hub blog or website. But the otherwise well reputed and serious journalist Plaut is taking a huge risk as well instead of patiently waiting till May 24 if Isaias is going to come out to make a speech or not. It is only a month away.

NewDawn

Selam Paulos, Whats significant about may 24?

David Samson

Hi NewDawn,
May 24 is meant to be “Independence” Day. IA comes out from “Hide and Seek” closet.
He has been treating his subject as children. He keeps playing this silly game until he is out of his hiding. Most of his subject then breath a sign of relief. The process starts all over again when IA feels it.

Ismail AA

Selam Dr. Paulos,

They better do. Not only Assenna or other web news outlets, but even relatively reputed opposition organizations had caught the bait – probably thrown by some regime or other intelligences – and reported false news. The problem seems to arise from amateurish competitive reporting based on hearsay, gossip and at best “our reliable sources inside” theatrics if I may put it that way. When one is outside the curtain and cannot see things on the other side, one should be careful.

Have not we read reports about fabulous exploits from daring (!) armed operations in the heart of the Asmara, or just a couple of weeks back about prisoners breaking the walls of the infamous Sembel jail and pouring in to the streets emptied (due to Coronavirus measures) the regime and been chased by security forces !!. That news item was underscored by citing the unmistakable prison uniforms.

These few days, too, cell phones are being flooded by news about the the despot and his health condition or fate. The source is said to be the so called digital woyane. It is a concern why people do not rely on common sense. Why would digital woyane be blessed to information from the hermetic regime whereas any one from the powerful and sophisticated underworld intelligence sources be denied?

Paulos

Selam Kbur Haw Ismail AA,

It all boils down to the abnormal nation–Eritrea. It shouldn’t have been an issue in the first place. Why should it be incredibly difficult and complicated for a leader of a nation to come out and address the concerns of the people? Why? Again, simply because, Eritrea is not a normal nation. Certainly, when I say abnormal, I meant to say, a nation built on abnormal institutions.

One can make the argument that, if that is the case, we work with what we have to figure out not only where the nation is headed but to find out where the leader is as well—and what we have at our own disposal is speculation rooted on over-active imagination.

Ismail AA

Selam Dr. Paulos,
True. As a nation we are in incredibly abnormal situation – of our own making to an extent I should add. When we could change course of history, we did not act. I mean as a nation and role players in it at particular phases of our recent past.

David Samson

Selam Ismail,

I just listened to Assenna’s transition of Martin’s
articles. Assena seemed to have learned from the debacle of the past when it erroneously reported the death of IA though, the news was even then reported as unconfirmed. This time around, Assena did not even allegedly report regarding IA’s disappearance. It merely translated someone’s article into Tigrigna. Martin also composed, as a piece of news gathered from different Eritrean outlets,but he has not indicated, be implicit or explicit, to confirm rumours.

said

Greeting,
Horizon and alike
Racism exist almost in every society and culture and in .every countries name it, Lebanese mosaic of all religious sect and background and Arab as culture as well are not exception. The recent wealth and richens and affluence from the oil economy corrupted many GCC rich Arab nations even though the Qur’an cautions in strongest term Muslims against racism and discrimination.
As blacks and other race were enslaved across cultures
there are no anti-black or racist sentiments any holily books, But to use holily book of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as justification and religious sources for slavery is absolutely and morally wrong. But SOME white racist by using biblical interpretation,’ The belief that African-Americans were descendants of Ham was a primary justification for slavery among Southern Christians. Mr. Haynes, who published ”Noah’s Curse: The Biblical Justification of American Slavery” (Oxford University Press) ”Slavery was necessary in the white Southern mind to control the ungovernable black. Slavery is the response to Ham’s rebellious behavior.” Mr. Haynes writes: ”Scholars of history and religion alike have failed to comprehend that pro-slavery Southerners were drawn to Genesis 9:20-27 because it resonated with their deepest cultural values.” Too often, he writes, historians have a superficial knowledge of the Bible, and scholars of religion have a limited knowledge of Southern culture. The western Christians abused the Biblical verses of the curse of Ham by Noah to justify racism and enslavement of black Africans. They claimed that Africans are the children of Canaan and the black color of Africans is due Noah’s curse.
For example, “ye, shall take them (the slaves) as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them (the slaves) for a possession, they shall be your bondmen (slaves) forever . . . “[LEVITICUS 25:46]. Read further more (Deuteronomy 20:10-17)
“Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the forward” (1 Peter 2:18) “Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ” (Ephesians 6:5).
It well known historically million died, millions suffered, and national life disrupted by the US civil war as result of pursuing a policy of a swift abolition the slavery in US by Abraham Lincoln.
Quotation from Quran and saying the Prophet. In his time, racism and slavery were rampant in most early civilizations. But until his very last breath, the Prophet Muhammad discouraged any form of racism to creep into Islam.
In his farewell sermon, the Prophet Muhammad said: “Allah has made you brethren one to another, so be not divided. An Arab has no preference over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab; nor is a white one to be preferred to a dark one, nor a dark one to a white one.”
These simple words above ,categorially ,absolutely firmly and eloquently denounced any form of racism in Islam. Islam never focused on a person’s color but their MERITS. One remembers the story of the Great Abyssinian Bilal, who was very early convert and strong believer and follower of Islam. He was the very first person to recite the adhan to invite Muslims to prayer in top of Mecca .
when Malcolm X visited Mecca, his understanding of racism changed. As he tells us in the Autobiography of Malcolm X:Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug — while praying to the same God — with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
The Qur’an tells Muslims: O mankind, We have created you from a male and a female; and We have made you into tribes and sub-tribes that you may recognize one another. Verily, the most honorable among you, in the sight of Allah, is he who is the most righteous among you. Surely, Allah is All-knowing, All-Aware. [49:14]
“Mankind was one nation…” (Qur’an 10:19). “O Mankind! We created you male and female, and made you into nations and tribes that you may know each other, not that you may despise each other.” (Qur’an 49:13). “Surely the believers are brethren; so reconcile between your brethren, and venerate God, that perhaps you may have mercy.” (Qur’an 49:10).

What makes you know what the difficult way is? It is the freeing the slave, or feeding on a day of famine, an orphan who is near of kin, or an indigent who is in apparent misery. Then he should be those who believe, and enjoin one another in patience, and enjoined one another in compassion.
I will quote some western historian as below statements, first true Christian values is to over Islamic values —–. [The Qur’an 90: 9-20]
The emancipation and freeing of slaves
“It is not piety that you turn your faces towards the East or the West, but pious are those who believe in God, and the hereafter, the angels, the Books (Torah, Psalm, Gospels, Qur’an), and the prophets; and those who, for the love of God, give of their wealth, to kinsmen, the orphans, the indigent, wayfarers, beggars, and for the redemption of slaves;” (Qur’an 2:177)
The freeing of slaves is recommended both for the expiration of sin (Quran4:92; 58:3) and as an act of simple benevolence (Quran2:177; 24:33; 90:13)
Famous British Historian Arnold J, Toynbee states:

“What value are we to place on Islam?…Islam’s creative gift to mankind is monotheism and we surely dare not throw this gift away…two conspicuous sources of danger—one psychological and the other material—in the present relations of this cosmopolitan proletariat [–i.e., westernized humanity–] with dominant element in our modern western society are race consciousness and alcohol; and in the struggle with each of these evils the Islamic spirit has a service to render which might prove, if it were accepted, be of high moral and social value. The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding moral achievements of Islam, and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue.” [Arnold Toynbee: “Civilization on Trial.” London. 1957 page 87-88, 205-209].
Similarly, American historian, philosopher, Will Durant:

“Muhammad’s ethics transcended the limits of tribe…The believers are naught else than brothers.” (xlix, 10). Distinction of rank or race, so strong among the tribes was diminished by similarity of belief. [Will Durant: “The Story of Civilization.” New York.1950, Page 182]
Edward W Blyden, the father of Pan-Africanism states:

“Muhammadan religion, on the other hand, disregarding all advantageous circumstances, seeks for the real man, neglect accidental for essential, the adventitious for the integral. Hence it extinguished all distinctions founded upon race, color or nationality. ‘I admonish you to fear God’ said Muhammad to his followers, ‘and yield obedience to successor, although he me a black slave,’ And therefore throughout the history of Islam, in all countries, race or ‘previous condition’ has been no barrier to elevation. (Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race by Edward W Blyden, 1887. Pages 244-245)
Bernard Lewis, Professor at Princeton University, states:
All these Islamic legislations led to the death of slavery without shedding a drop of blood.
“But Qur’anic legislation, subsequently confirmed and elaborated in the Holy law, brought two major changes to ancient slavery which were to have far reaching effects.

Superb as usual. Is peace the absence of war or is war the absence of peace? I sure don’t mean to bog you down onto polemics but highly likely that Isaias is missing war so much so that he is selling his fake death and stroke while kicking and robust and most likely starring onto the border map on how to move fast and faster to get Badme back. He gave us something to munch on [talking points about a fake death and terminal illness] while preparing for war. May God have mercy on all of us!

There was this despicable ad by a Lebanese man, “Domestic worker of African citizenship (Nigerian) for sale with a new residency and full legal papers,”. (Al Jazeera).

Is there a difference between modern day human trafficking and the slave trade, or are they the same?
There are more than 250K domestic workers in Lebanon which includes many Ethiopian women. Under the so called kafala system, it is said that workers are legally bound to their employers and they are released only on the consent of the employer and not on the wish of the employee, which is reminiscent of slavery. Ethiopian women were publicly mistreated in the streets of Lebanon on many occasions, and the number of domestic workers who purportedly committed suicide and no one knows the real cause of their deaths are too many to count.

History tells us that about 17 million Africans were sold as slaves to the middle East and Asia by Arab slave traders.
An Egyptian once wrote that they are racists, yet they are in deep denial.
It is said that slavery exists in some countries even today.
“Slavery as practiced in what is modern Ethiopia and Eritrea was essentially domestic. Slaves thus served in the houses of their masters or mistresses, and were not employed to any significant extent for productive purpose. Slaves were thus regarded as second-class members of their owners’ family, and were fed, clothed and protected. …….. The first attempt to abolish slavery in Ethiopia was made by Emperor Tewodros II (r. 1855–1868), although the slave trade was not abolished completely until 1923 with Ethiopia’s ascension to the League of Nations. …….Ethiopia officially abolished slavery and involuntary servitude after having regained its independence in 1942. On 26 August 1942, Haile Selassie issued a proclamation outlawing slavery.” (The History Talk)

The point is, how are Africans seen in the Arab world today? Is racism against Africans common in the Arab world, despite the fact that we hear Arab leaders call African leaders “our brothers”, probably for the sake of political correctness? How do ordinary Arabs see Africans in the streets, or should they do much more, in this age and times of the 21st century?

Paulos

Selam Horizon,

I don’t know if the Arabs are racist or not and equally I don’t think that is a relevant question to ask either. The question we need to ask is—why are Africans particularly Nigerians migrating to the Arab world as house-workers.

Consider this: In the first seven months alone, in 2018, Nigeria made a whopping 21 Billion dollars! Let me put that in a context to illustrate how large amount of money that is. A Million seconds is two weeks and a Billion seconds is thirty-two years! Now, should we blame the Arabs or the incompetent and corrupted African leaders?

Kim Hanna

Selam Paulos,

The blatant corruption of Nigerian rulers over the years is legendary and rotten to the core. That is a topic in and of itself.

As to why Africans migrate to the Arab world is a question to focus on. Number one is of course the need to feed oneself and family as the driving force. Facilitating the whole enterprise is the cottage industry of supply and demand in the form of recruiters and their advertisement. Sometimes the poor victims, prey to God, make the risk to benefit analysis, including security and survival, to make the jump. It is sad.

Mr. K.H

Berhe Y

Hi Kim,

Speaking of Nigerian people, I find it puzzling about the corruption that’s always reported and the success has f the people.

I find the Nigerian people among the most highly qualified, the most integrated and at the same tine the most confident Africans that I get to know. And they are genuinely nice, at least towards me, almost all that I have met.

One unique aspects of the Nigerian people is, no matter they are born in the UK, the US or Canada, or they are born and grew up in Nigeria, they all seem to use their authentic Nigerian names. They don’t shorten it or change it or adopt in any way.

The other people that I know of such are the Japanese people with Indian people to some degree.

What puzzles me is, how can a corrupt country can produce such a dynamic and highly qualified professionals?

Berhe

Abi

Hawna Berhe
Please inform iSem Awatenation can accommodated more than one ሠመረ anytime.

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

I think iSem is doing frontline work these days…hard to find him.
But he is doing good.

Berhe

Ismail AA

Selam Berhe,

Yes indeed, Nigerians are proud generous and resourceful people. Of course, there could be a few bad apples like in any people elsewhere. I have also met lots of fine Nigerians. But unfortunately, I should opine, Nigeria as a key nation in Africa did not succeed to evolve corruption and nepotism immune governance system. This is not unique to Nigeria. Almost all, with a few relative exceptions, post colonial nations in Africa suffer from the malaise that precluded them from building just governing systems.

Kim Hanna

Selam Berhe Y,

For the most part Africa was not blessed with great leaders who put their people first.
Nigeria is not an exception. What makes Nigeria’s condition obvious is the visible wealth of the nation evaporating in plain sight.

I know it speaks more about you than anything else to look for positives in people.
One of the advantages of living in U.S is you get a chance to interact with various people from all corners of the world.
I recognize I have an in bred bias in believing that Eth/Eri being a cut above the rest. Before the sharp rocks start flying, let me admit this belief of mine is totally unjustifiable.

In any case, if I see a retired former Government official of African origin with access to millions in his bank account, my immediate go place understandably is corruption. It is unfortunate because there are individuals who made it in a legitimate enterprise.

Mr. K.H

Nitricc

Hey Kim: I couldn’t think any more corrupted people as Nigerians.
True, very incorrect to generalize but they are what they are, corrupted to the core.

Nitricc

Moda; get your self together your self and learn the difference between racism and corruption. stop this nonsense BS. every nation in the world is corrupted, that is the truth. stop this outlandish moral authority. And yes Nigerians are corrupted. the truth.

Nitricc

No: how about you get with the realty that Nigerans are corrupted. why are you so scared to call the spade is just that a spade. once more Nigerians corrupted; no your political correctness will hold water

Berhe Y

Hi Kim,

I don’t deny there is corruption but I think the people / leaders of Africa are singled out to the point that they are dehumanized. What I mean by that is, relative to other countries, if Africa has a proper institution where wealthy people, instead of running away with the stolen cash but instead find a way to reinvest their wealth in their countries to benefit themselves as well as their countries.

In the US, I think corruption is institutionalize to the point where it’s hard to distinguish what’s legal and what’s not. For example, Disney has laid off thousands if they’d employee due to Corona, and at the same time, the board of directors approved millions of dollars in dividends payments as well as bonus to the executives.

Most congress members in the US, specially the republicans and controlled by corporations where after serving a couple of terms, it’s grantees that they come out as millionaires.

I don’t know how and what the people of China are able to make but the amount of wealth they are exporting to places like Canada is beyond believe.

People from Middle East and other places have million and millions of dollars of wealth exported.

Are they really that corrupted, compared to other countries? Or are they singled out because of all the spam emails:)

Here is a clip of Farrakhan with Mike Wallace 60 minutes talking about Nigeria,

If it is not relevant to ask if Arabs are racists or not at the time when a person is dehumanized because of the color of his skin by an Arab person, when do you think it is relevant? What is wrong if a domestic worker from an African country goes to an Arab country to earn a living, as long as they are needed? In my opinion, it doesn’t mean that they have sold their humanity. Philippines, Indian women, etc work as domestic workers all over the Arab world.

I believe that you are an immigrant to the USA, should anybody ask you why you immigrated to the country, whether you come from a rich or poor country? Is it possible to say that Arabs have the right to mistreat and dehumanize any person who finds him/herself in their country as long as he/she is an African? I don’t think that the person could have said the same think about a white man.

If we are speaking about corruption, Arab governments are also corrupt. Last time I read about poverty in Saudi Arabia, and I couldn’t believe what I read. Therefore, don’t go to Arab countries is not the answer.

Teodros Alem

horizon
It is complicated than what u think it is, there r a lot of factors like the culture those migrants brought to the country, backwardness, the behavior, sanitation and so on.
I lived in arab countries and i know most if not all of the ” victims” of these kind of abuse r those came from a rural part of ethiopia, u don’t hear none from those who came from addis or a bigger cities.
like every society, arabs have bad, cruel , maybe racist individuals, so u don’t be ” tetaz nitek”, don’t judging for the thing that u know little or don’t have idea.
What about the rural domestic workers abuses in addis and in a bigger cities, is that racism too?

Saleh Johar

Hi Horizon,
Sorry, but carrying all the ugly luggage of our reality (slavery in our region was common until a few decades ago), we cannot pretend to be liberated form it. AS for the way maids are treated in the Gulf states and Lebanon, it is even worse that what you described. But still, when one looks at the way the poor house servants are treated in our region, seven days a week hard work, always sleeping in a small space in the kitchen floor, feeding on leftover food like dogs, we need to do our homework at home. Maybe when we achieve an exemplary norm of treating the vulnerable poor with compassion and dignity, we can lecture others who are currently as cruel as we are.

The difference is, we are poor and not many people have the luxury of hiring servants at home, including gate keepers, maids and baby sitters who actually do all the work while the household do not even fetch the water they drink from the kitchen. It’s ugly when blacks enslave other blacks because they happen to have better means than the poor servants. Nothing we throw at others hides the way we treat servants or our checkered history (until recently with with residual effects to this day). It’s even uglier when we forget our reality or hide it, and still pretend servants are treated humanly in our country. The kettle cannot call and one has to remove the something in his eyes before he looks at something in the eyes of others. Just saying.

Ismail AA

Hayak Allah Saleh,

The problem is people tend to look outward when they also need to look inward. About overt and covert slavery, Ethiopian society, as well as many others in the region, do not have that much benign reputation, either historically or post so called abolition eras. Beyond entrenched colour and handicraft based socio-cultural superiority complex, enslavement of maids, and none Habesha people with negroid extraction is an ugly normality. Even a downtrodden poor Habesha thought him/her self socially and culturally more worthy and valued than rich “Shanqla” or “baria” who is taken as heathen in the first place. It never leaves mind when black African students during my time in college (Addis Ababa) complained they were discriminated in public entertainment spots.

Selam Mehandis,
“ሓበሻ ከም ዓለሙ ፈላላዪ ዘርኢ
ሐሕማቑ ሓቢኡ ጸጽብቑ ይርኢ”.
Lazer sharp observation of a complex matter that reside deep in socio-cultural mindset. Only persons who deeply understand their own milieu are able to sum up such a vast issue in a 9-word stanza of a poem. Thank you for telling us what many do not dare to tell or hear in such an elegant way.

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Thank you, Ismail AA!
Trying to learn from the best!

Paulos

Selam Ayay,

True but certainly no household owner in Eritrea or Ethiopia would post a notice that says, ትሽየጥ ሰራሕተኛ ኣላትና or የምትሸጥ ሰራተኛ ኣለችን in these day and age. Horizon’s argument is precisely that when a Lebanese guy posted a notice to that effect.

Teodros Alem

selam paulos
I don’t know what exactly the Lebanese guy posted or i don’t know what kind of words he used but do u have a chance to see some of ” delala” ( brokers) houses in addis? specially for those house workers, including construction workers who don’t have “teyez””(who sign responsibility), it is all same things except in addis they don’t use the word “for sale”.
the point is, nobody is defending the Lebanese guy but this kind of abuse is not limited to certain society and horizon twisted it and concluded the whole arabs r racist.

Saleh Johar

Yes Paulos, and when I said they do worse, I meant it and I have first hand experience in it. I had to pay money to realest a distant relative who was cheated to come to the gulf thinking she would be an office manager. She comes from a wealthy family and left a good job behind. What she cane to was a house maid job with—literally— a police Assir Aleqa. She screamed loud to the extent the neighbors called the police and she had my number because she carried some stuff fo me. I went in the middle of the night and I had to negotiate her release. 1. The police had paid $2500 agent fee for the home (Ethiopian) agent and the destination agent. In addition he paid $1200 air ticket and $500 in visa and residence permit fees. He wanted $4200 dollars to release her. And she had signed the contract to work for two years.

The process is so bad that it is easy to deceive the poor workers. And the governments just let even under age girls in such deals. But, someone who pays money wants his money back if the contract is annulled. I knew the legal way would be lengthy and costly and. I don’t want the girl to go to jail until she pays back the expenses. We paid the money and drove her straight to the airport, and expensive ticket home, and she left.

What happens is that sometimes the girlls and the bosses do not agree. Sometimes funny stuff happens and the wives do not like it and to annul the contract they look for someone who can take over the contract. That is where the girl becomes like a sheep and is peddled for “sale”. The way they do it is so degrading and that is where the ugliness of the culture is exposed. And there are a few good people who struggle to end it all but with a migrant population of more than half the locals, it’s an entrenched abuse that I don’t think will come to an end soon.
I just didn’t line the sneer and racist stain, that is all
Hope I gave you the context

Ismail AA

Selam Saleh,

Thank you for sharing personal experience supported by facts. This is how meaningful debate in this forum should run. At the heart of the problem about the matter being discussed here are the greedy middlemen and their accomplices, who serve interests of big bosses in governments hiding behind porous shell of providing contracted jobs.

I remember right after the current ruling party formed government in Asmara, there was an agency under, I think, the watch of the labour office that sent young girls to Lebanon. Those middlemen provided false and exaggerated information young girls cannot deny, above of course needs poverty enforced on them. I knew first hand wealthy families had been employing maids since the time of Emperor Emperor Haile Sellassie, and those Eritrean young ladies were treated. There were hundreds of them who were subjected to inhuman workloads and humiliation that affected their physical and mental health. I knew this from personal experience.

Once they crossed the doorsteps of the employers, they were left to their fate. Their life and future fell in the hands of their employers. The only way out for them was to somehow find ways to escape and move further to Europe or elsewhere. The example you shared is a lucky one among hundreds of unfortunate lot. The fact that they endure unimaginable exploitation as well as covert and overt racism need not overshadow advocacy for justice and fairness on native and alien levels. Enslavement of needy human beings in the name of work and jobs should be unequivocally condemned.

Selam SJG
Abhorrent as slavery is wherever it may have been practised, nevertheless, comparing slavery under Arabs and Abyssinians will be comparing two things that differ a lot in extent and depth. Slavery was not formally abolished in Arab Gulf countries until 1970. There are countries like Mauritainia where Arabs still own slaves in this 21st century. One can compare slavery committed by Arabs and the way they treat Africans today with that of the USA, and it is still worse. It is remotely comparable and extremely worse than slavery in Ethiopia that was abolished in the early 20th century.

I don’t think that slavery amounts to the work the slave does. Much more, it is the inhuman way he/she is treated and dehumanised. That is what a Saudi Princess did to one of her servants in London, when she forced him to kiss her feet a year ago. The case was in court. I think the person was not black. Simply, she could do it to anybody because of her money and title that has no place in a Western country and her cultural inheritance from the past.

Does it mean that it is OK if a white man enslaved a black man and it is anathema when a black man enslaved a black man? Is the colour of the skin an important factor that the white man is always the slave-owner and the black man always the slave? The first slaves in ancient Greece were white, men, women and children captured after wars. In actual fact, slavery by Europeans came to Africa after the discovery of the Americas, where working hands were needed in the plantations. On the contrary, Arab slave traders were in Africa centuries earlier.
Slavery by Africans was no different from having a servant, because he/she should be fed and dressed, even if it was left-overs, which most Africans couldn’t afford for themselves, and the slaves were second-class members of the family. Therefore, by comparing slavery under Arabs and Abyssinians as if they were the same, by taking out factors like quantity and quality, and the mentality that still exists in the Arab world, is to miss the plight of about 17m African slaves snatched from their villages and sold by Arab slave traders, and the dehumanisation Africans are undergoing in Arab countries even today.
The Arab kettle is much much blacker than the Abyssinian one, and they can’t be compared, and let us leave to history to judge both, as it is already doing. Let slavery be judged by the millions of the decendants of African slaves and Africans in general, who are still dehumanised by Arabs in the middle East and the Gulf States.

Saleh Johar

Horizon,
I am just saying let’s not use misery and dehumanization of others to advance our prejudice. Racism against any race is racism and our slavery is flowery but yours is not, is a futile game and an obvious ego massaging.

NewDawn

Selam horizon, I dont have much to say but America brought slaves to build the most powerful nation. Arabs do it because they derive pleasure from abusing people.

Simon Kaleab

Selam NewDawn,

The Arabs were also involved in the trans-Atlantic slave trade supply chain.

The Europeans rarely, if ever, ventured into the interior of Africa during the slave trade. They just waited at the coastal areas, with their ships, for the supply to arrive.

The Arabs, from their conquered North African bases, raided villages in the interior of Africa. In this, they were helped by some of the Islamised African tribes.

Ismail AA

Selam Dr. Paulos and Horizon,

If one were to be asked to define what the essence of slavery is, it would probably be: slavery is sale of nature endowed human dignity when need for survival cannot be acquired in social systems which greed and power classify in to classes. A few control all resources a polity (modern sense) has and can provide to its inhabitants when lucky enough to have just systems of governance.The dominant or the powerful in the society accumulate and consume available resources without bothering to develop sources of wealth and fairly distribute it among the people.

Now, if one is to take the case of the poor Nigerian lady, she is the victim of legacy of the colonialists who built domination and plundering on the social and cultural systems they found and left behind when they departed. Imagine, Nigeria is one of the richest countries in terms of human and material resources, as is Ethiopia and many countries in the Continent are. As Dr. Paulos has correctly cited, Nigeria has, among other sources of wealth, oil. But this asset has turned into devastating liability to the nation since independence.

It has been source of corruption, manipulation for power and ruining of the economy. A group, who commit every subterfuge to win sham elections infested by all kinds of social ills like tribalism, regionalism and clanism, sit in power, and the first portfolio to allot to one of their own (learned) person becomes the ministry of petroleum. His job is to plunder for himself and close cronies as well as the big bosses. At the end when satiated and secret bank accounts in foreign lands are filled, the ministry is set on fire to destroy evidence. In the 70s and 80s, it was set on fire se reveral times.

Decades under such a corrupt system, it is just imaginable survival and its needs would force people, who otherwise are fiercely envious about their dignity, to seek sources of survival by selling their labor in places where racism and social class still function as norms. In developed countries such ugly socio-cultural values have abated though hidden through struggle and legislation but manifest them selves in one form or another as we witness randomly even in the USA. But in the so called independent countries, but socially retarded and introvert, and endowed by easy natural resources such as oil, which developed economies need, the classes that monopolize power and wealth also attract cheap labor from unfortunate poor countries and who can be abandoned by their so called governments

Those people do not own manufacturing assets that demand skill and know how. They own money and need domestic labor that transcend service in homes to social prestige among culturally and socially feudalist family households. That is why we are told the house workers are tied to employers as preconditions. That is a way of ensuring ownership – slavery without needing to describe it.

The case of the poor Nigerian is not unique. There are thousands of such cases that involve many so called independent countries in Africa and Asia. The countries of our region, including our own and neighbors, are not exceptions by the way. The governments in those countries export poor young ladies in the name of contracts. Do not tell that our governments are not aware. Haven’t we heard tragic events that victimized Ethiopian house workers in more than one country in the Middle East? Cases like the one the poor Nigerian take place in many places; the difference is that they escape being reported. Do one imagine the governments are not aware?

Teodros Alem

Selam paulos
Man, i have seen documentary about Nigeria, they started exporting oil before even they got their independence from Britain, in 1952, since then, Nigeria exported close to 7 trillion dollars from just oil.
The question we need to ask is not just why r africans particularly Nigeria migrating to the world as a house workers but also are africans(sub sahara) capable to build politically and economically strong countries? Not as individuals but as society, r sub sahara africans dna capable to do what the rest of the society of the world doing?

Kim Hanna

Selam Horizon,

I have no concrete information I can pass on about the Arabs and their views towards Africans. However, I have read many articles and pages in books in which their inhumanity and cruelty towards Africans shines above and beyond other peoples and regions of the world.

I think one of the the ways to shed light on this topic is probably to see the various ways they use their language to describe Africans in general and Ethiopians. The short one and two words insults, the short descriptions and stories they tell to each other when no one is around. I have never heard their jokes and folklore but I can imagine it is rich.

Sometimes what gets me is the cover up that goes on on the part of Muslim Africans about this open secret. They never want to repeat the words, not out of disdain and disapproval but to protect the offenders.

Mr. K.H

Teodros Alem

kim
U guys r simply haters, 1st, do u guys even know the arabs have blacks , way blacker than most ethiopians?
i don’t want to talk about what it was look like slavery in ethiopia but i know and u guys r liars, do u know the saying ” qungawan sebreh doro tebake aragwa”(broke his leg and make him “doro tebaki”), that was the punishment for protesting slaves in ethiopia.
The point is, in all over the world, those who r in a better position always take advantage from the disadvantaged people as much as they can , that is the reality ,in different shapes or form at present times and it has been the history of the world but for u haters it is just the arabs.

Sultan M.G.

Selam Horizon:
We know about the Modern-Day-Slavery all over the world including in and by the so called developed and pseudo-democratic Western World!
Can u talk also about the deadly domestic Ethiopian Slavery?
Note:
It is ONLY fair for you to STOP demonizing the innocent and defenseless Eritreans !
The scarified everything and have paid the heaviest price ever any people and nation can and could have ;and they got and claimed back what belongs to them and they are still struggling for their Phase-II struggle .
Stop being an obstacle to their next Phase of struggle.
Respect!

said

Greeting,
As reported .The Director-General of (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reportedly promotes what China wants him to promote.
An article in western media link below .
Questions surfacing about history of WHO’s director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Dr. Tedros is facing the biggest challenge of his stint as the WHO chief during the times of the pandemic. He has been slammed by the West for praising China’s response to the pandemic time, that Ghebreyesus has been accused of being too friendly with the Chinese. Henry Thayer, a professor at the University of Texas-San Antonio, and Lianchao Han, the vice president of Citizens Power Initiatives for China, accused Tedros of turning a “blind eye” to China’s culpability in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Having graduated from the University of Asmara in 1986 with a degree in biology, Ghebreyesus worked as a health official in the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam,a Marxist dictator and a former chairman of the Derg military junta,
Ghebreyesus later joined Tigray People’s Liberation Front that played a major role in the toppling of Mariam in 1991. It later became a part of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front — a left coalition that ruled Ethiopia till 2019 end. Ghebreyesus came under fire in 2017 over his handling of cholera epidemics in Ethiopia and Sudan. Physicians and health professionals at the time accused him of failing to properly classify outbreaks of the disease in order to avoid embarrassing the two African regimes. Lawrence Gostin, the director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, had lobbied against Tedros taking over WHO because of his handling of cholera outbreaks in Ethiopia in 2006, 2009 and 2011. Tedros served as Ethiopia’s health minister from 2005 to 2012, when he took over as Ethiopia nation’s foreign minister.
Dr. Tedros is a compassionate and highly competent public health official,” Gostin told The New York Times. “But he had a duty to speak truth to power and to honestly identify and report verified cholera outbreaks over an extended period.” see the link

At an emotional level, Dr Tedros is one of us and should proud representing us in the global agency. Managing it requires a very delicate balancing act and exceptional interpersonal skills.

I do not know Dr Tedros—only knew him when he was running
for the post and was on a spot-light. The ESAT crew were running a campaign against his candidacy.

His stumbled when he praised Mugabe and gave him some
honour, but only to retract it a few days later. I thought that was good move
by Dr. His first test was passed without raising an eye browse.

However, he faced the trickiest test in his career when the invisible killer has appeared in the global village. One would expect the person in his position will face a daunting task on how to handle and keep all the stakeholders on his side. This entails patience, cool-headedness and above all, the right tone at the right
time. Unfortunately, the good Dr fall well short of displaying the
skills and attributes requires to be an MD.

“I do not give a damn” is a cliché and undiplomatic by
any norm— of course except If you are from………..?

“I am proud to be” is another cheap symptom of a victimhood
mindset.
No wonder why the Trump admin is calling for his head

Sultan M.G.

“Breaking:“
“Due to the rapidly changing situation in Eritrea, the USA and the EU have evacuated their citizens and the entire Eri-Sudanese and Ethio-Eritrea borders are on a High Risk Travel Zones( Red)!
“They thanked the Ethiopian Airlines for its efficient Emergency Evacuation Services”!
Note:
To and from Asmera Air Travel has been on hold!
Source: Digital WeyAne!
Not sure as to why the Ghedeb News missed this “ Serious News Item”unless it is on a Verifying Process.
Two possibilities:
“ IA being under House Arrest” Or

Per 03 rumor, “the EDF is on high alert to take over Baduma.”!

Paulos

Capo,

Is this “President Isaias is in Saudi Hospital fighting stroke 2.0”? Please spare us! We have been fooled many times over when nothing apparently changes. An Art, Picasso once famously said, is a lie that help us realise the truth. But certainly not the art of lying.

That certainly is interesting but it is equally interesting to note why the English version of the news did not pick up the story of the haste to evacuate if it is political as opposed to an assumption based on a model they have where Africa is next to get hit by the nasty virus.

To be honest, we are turned into a generation of ቦርቴረ [ፖርቴረ.] As you know, a goalkeeper doesn’t know where the ball is going to end where his best guess is based on assumption. We are a generation of speculators. The guy came out from his hiding after almost two months and we saw him on live video talking about the virus. That is the fact! He is still alive and kicking! As they say, ካብ ጌግኡ ዘይማሃር ሰብ የለን and frankly መለበሚ ኮይኑና’ሎ so that next time we don’t fall into the usual trap even though the temptation to fall for it is incredibly alluring.

I understand ኢንጂኔረ ዓርከይ and that is precisely the reason he is playing that kind of awful game.

Patience is a virtue. ዓቕሊ ንግበር! ቱርካውያን እንታይ ይብሉ መስለካ—With patience, one can empty an ocean with a table-spoon.

Sultan M.G.

Doc:
I have said it repeatedly:
I don’t see your name in the long list of the Manifesto by the Association of Eritrean Professionals and Scholars in the Diaspora, at Eritrea Hub!https://eritreahub.org/

Saleh Johar

Sultan,

Thank you but everyone should learn to verify. The travel alert was released by the USA embassy in Asmara, on its own website on April 18. We know about it but it didn’t look like news to us. It’s not digital Weyane or anything but the embassy itself. And it is a Corona virus alert, nothing else. Kindly do not post unverified news. Rumors are a sin..

Sultan M.G.

Selam Salih:
I sarcastically quoted both the US and British embassies Reports verbatim.
I spiced it saying Digital WeyAne since it was reported by the BBC Tigrinya Program since it is a part and parcel of the Digital WeyAne!

If u think what the British and US embassies officially reported is unverified news, well, not sure what other verifiable news you can report.
Relatively speaking though,Eritrea is prob the most successful in halting the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,and even the SAFEST country in the world when it comes to the COVID-19 Pandemic!

Realistically speaking,Asmera is the safest have for the Westetn Citizens residing in Asmera compared to their respective countries, plagued with the deadly pandemic!

The COVID -19 pandemic cannot be a sole reason for the “ Rapidly changing situation in Eritrea /Asmera”!
But we know who said it:
The stupid British, quite known for decades for its /their anti-Eritrea stand .

The highest Travel Alert and Travel Ban with RED FLAG for the entire Eritrean borders with the Sudan and Ethiopia cannot be simply due to COVID-19 pandemic”, even though the GoE already blocked the borders for an obvious COVID-19 pandemic factor !
The dumb and recklessly irresponsible USA and British do not have any moral grounds to blame Eritrea about the corona viral pandemic!

There are only two possibilities:
A-Either there some serious internal political turmoil is going that we don’t know
OR
B-As usual, it is a sabotage by the same old new enemies of Eritrea.

The other part of my comment was just a joke.

Nitricc

Hey MG; the exact wording was used to Ethiopia to. Nothing to do with Eritrea. You can go to British embassy Addis web site and you will read the exact wording telling Ethiopia what they said to Eritrea. so, nothing is there.

It is interesting what the Ethiopians are saying about Eritrea. They are saying time to learn from Eritreans and giving their testimony about how Eritreans are civilized. When i was telling Abiy, backward; well let his own people tell him the truth.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsYtmXkWhGI

A.Osman

I take it with 39 confirmed and no further increase, 11 recovered….the situation is under control and soon the lockdown will end.

Nitricc

Hey AOsman; i have no doubt. I am impressed and proud how the government handled it and how the disciplined and braved people of Eritrea headed the advice of the government. I will say in mead of May will be all over in Eritrea. The medical experience in Sahil underground hospitals of EPLF should come handy in containing this crises. i believe in Eritreans.

Selam Ismail
Well written and Thank you .Here’s the simple truth. It shaped your world, From a young age , you showed how as human beings Eritrean ability to cope with the severe crises

It is true history that may not repeat and will not happen again. Your brought Asmara past curfew to present, contrast and compere and good observations. from where you are and your personal experience and you were in the midst of a catastrophe, the dark days of trials and tribulations and living extremely dark days and the sense of isolation and anxiety .here’s a lot of ground you covered ,Asmara paralysis, back to the dark ages, you give us inside information, for some ,spicily the young this is only source of information , House arrest became the norm with draconian rules being implemented and extreme police states overnight, shutdown and obey. That changed everything and harsher punishments to those who dare try to live somewhat normal lives, a callous disregard for human life. , in those days ,the sun hardly shined being confined at home , thousands of small businesses have been purposely snuffed out by fascist Derge and the casualties was. innocent people simply disappeared and others paid with their life for no reason
This was 1974 terror days, Asmara world ,people were living with great fear and deep insecurity and luck of food they lived through what will be a tremendous part of Eritrean history. When people lose everything they had and everything they dreamed of having, as a nation and the people are confronted with challenge ,they meet it with strength, unity , solidarity, fortitude and common sense for common enemy . And their resistance during the Ethiopian occupation, Many future stories of victory for freedom will start coming out
It is an interesting article to the awate audience. Some hard lessons are learned. Freedom’s first virtue will always be a moral one and where individual rights and liberties are honored and respected. In situation that Asmara went through you trust your own instincts, reasoning, ability, and critical thinking skills. you trusted your own immediate family members. You trust your neighbors. Most Eritrean trust normal people living normal lives across this once great country that you described .
Asmara lockdown was a near-complete and economic self-embargo was imposed , Economic disaster was looming and was obvious. the confinement crisis bringing some kind of reckoning what city of Asmara went through .
back to the present day .If the Eritrean government valued freedom as much as it says it does, it would do everything in its power to maximise the liberties we can safely exercise, while protecting us from harm, but is for another day .

Godless communism ideology adopted by Derge ,sadly adopted by EPLF,ELF ,TPLF, competing among themselves which was group more radical and pure communism what an abstract misunderstandings of communism ideology.
Beside china exporting communism ideology in high days of Mao Tse-tung and China started the twenty-first century with a plague. the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) plague of 2002 caught the government of China unprepared. This was as much a blow to public health as it was a political embarrassment to the Communist Party. Corona versus started in china.
The course that started On July 1, 1958, the ruler of China, Mao Tse-tung, said farewell to the god of plagues. Mao’s celebration was short lived. The god of plagues has been ravaging China and the rest of the world to this day of the existential corona pandemic in 2020.
Ramadan Kareem

Nitricc

Hi All; enough of those good for nothing Neftegna; what I wanted to know is where is Hashela and Haile S. Normally whenever Abrehat Yosef posts, Haile S is the first one to respond and this time didn’t respond? Well, Hashela and Haile-S I hope you guys are okay.

Haile S.

Selam Nitricc,

Thank you for asking about my well being. I am fine and I hope you are safe & well too! And every Awate forumer/reader is fine and healthy.

I go to work everyday because someone among us has to be physically present. At work, everyone adheres as much as possible to the new rules, 2 meter distance, T/C instead of boardroom meetings. Office and corridor doors are all wide open to avoid touching knobs. Touching every communal machine is as much as possible with ID-cards instead of fingers. Hand sanitizers are in every corner starting from the entry. People rub their hands everytime they touch objects. Wherever you have to wait, cafeteria service for example, there are tape marks of at least 2 meters to guide everyone’s distance….. We are getting used to the rules. Some of these practices will stay for long.

You observed right. I usually react to Abrehet’s comments, one of my favorite Awate-mates. She reminds me of those very knowledgeable and intelligent highschool classmate I had, that I never stopped from nagging everyday. If I didn’t react this time, it was just incidental or:

ንሰበይቲ አቦይ ሰበይቲ አቦኣ ሞይታ
ንቐብሪ ከይደ መሰነይታ

The adage is from the witty ሹም ፍረሓንስ. I use to know a lot of stories about him from my mother. Abrehet is the kind of people she knows such witty people and stories. This time, I found stories of the man online compiled by Abraham Negash of Santa Clara University. Thank you Abraham for documenting this and many other tigrigna related materials.

Hey Haile I am just glad you are okay. The triggering point was Abrhet’s post and your absence to replay got me thinking. I don’t understand everything you and Abrehet exchange but I get a kick out of it. you both have this stylish communication in Tigrigna. Anyway; I am glad you are safe and please stay safe. Good day sir.

Hashela

Hi Nitricc

Thank you for your concern and asking about my whereabout. I am well.
I was away and doing some observational works that can be carried out only during austral summer (southern hemisphere summer).

The BBC tells us that 5G technology doesn’t have the capacity to affect the immune system, and therefore, it can’t predispose to Covid-19 infection, and in no way can the radio waves of 5G transmit the virus to people.There are many more conspiracy theories that have been busted. I brought these points, because you are fascinated with 5G technology.

Kokhob Selam

Yes Horizon,

Sorry for not answering fast..But what can I do?

Thank you for your interest..Somehow I already mention that the virus may have the way to be a main cause of Covid-19. That is really interesting,

I am following about the the subject 24/7..

My understanding is, if the virus isn’t transmuted by 5G wave….But then you should take in to consideration frequency is in both cases is the same..and that body that is affected by 5G will not resist when infected by Covid-19 and the body will not stay alive..

I am following it day and night..Sure there are more ideas coming and going but then the world will not be the same after this development and 5D will take over not 5G,,

I have no idea what 5D is. I think it is about dimensions. Nothing more.

Indeed, as you said, the world post-Covid-19 will not be the same, for the reason you mentioned above and also for many other reasons. The world is going to be a different place politically, economically and socially. Many say so, and I agree.

The great American (western) capitalist politico-economic system went bust in the hands of Trump, and he is like a ship’s captain in a tempest who doesn’t know which direction to sail. He maybe taking the ship in the direction of a big iceberg. Europe as usual is behind, dragging its feet, and China, although battered seems to stay afloat, no one knows for how long. The capitalist system is almost defeated by a single viral pandemic. Can it save human beings from the next pandemic, which certainly will come? I doubt it.

The economy post-covid-19 will suffer from a big crisis. Many millions have already lost their jobs, without being certain that they will get back their jobs in the future. Austerity will be the common recipe for the ailing economy. Don’t expect wealth distribution coming from the rich, and it will again be the middle and the lower class who will pay the bill of the economic crisis.

Anger, frustration, depression, etc, will be common social manifestations with unknown consequences, unless governments find a way to mitigate the economic and social problems of the people, not in the usual way, but through a welfare state, pro-human economic policy as in the Scandinavian countries, and by not dumping socialism as an ideology, for the sake of the defunct capitalism, neoliberalism, globalization, individualism, selfishness and a dog-eat-dog capitalist political and economic system of today, which miserably failed to protect human beings.

Kokhob Selam

Dear Brother Horizon,

You may have good knowledge of the development..from where you explain above..

I am interested about the topic those days..I am going to write about it in Jebena page soon..Please follow me..

Yes 5D is about dimensions..You must know by know about 3D .
I am certain also about 4D also..You must had read about it like I do..some time to more..Just open in your google page and read more about all this..You will find more and more to eat,,Ha..Ha..

KS,,

sara

selamat awtistas,
just in to say Ramadan Kareem to all and hope with our fast and prayers the corona thing will
pass .

Brhan

Merhaba Sheikh Ismail,

Well written. When I saw the title I thought you will tell us about the current one , COVID 19 lockdown. But you took us back to ዕግርግር! It is unforgettable! Manu stories and memoir can be written.

But I would like to share with you and this forum participants, that lockdown has not left not only our city but the whole Eritrea.

1. Lockdown is about people, including our youth. There has been lockdown for the past 20 years for our youth who have avoided the unlimited slave type national service. These young men and women have lived inside their home with out going outside for years, And if they have too , it has been with great risk and some of them have ended to the notorious jails due to the spies who are scattered every where. So like ዕግርግር and now COIVD 19 , SAWA, also has made our country to have another type of lockdown targeting the youth.

2. During the chaos of 1974 and 75 we were looking for water to drink. And now , if you have followed ERI TV people are asking the gov’t of how can they protect them selves from COVID 19 by washing their hands by water and soap frequently because there is not water. This is in the capital city.

3. Last but not least , I just want to share with you Sheikh, that as you said , schools were closed during the chaos of the mid 70s but Koran schools or Khalwas were not so I had the opportunity to learn the Koran under the great teacher Ana Mariama of Cherihi. This is to say that for every ordeal we have to find positivity to live normally as our great poet Jalal Al-DIn Rumi, teach us. I am working from home but I know those who are not , might benefiting by doing many good things, like reading, gardening and etc,

Happy Ramadan to you Sheik Ismail

Aklil

Ustaz Ismael, well written. A minor correction: the song is not from Yemane but Bereket Mengesteab.

Abi

Hello All
An extremely timely article!!
Eritreans need these kinds of informative and timely articles to periodically remind them how bad things have been during the Ethiopian administration.

Paulos

Abination,

I say this respectfully. You are an extremely shrewd ኣማራ precisely because, you have clearly studied us–how we think and see things. Thing is, we don’t know you as much as you know us and that is the reason you are not only always one step ahead of us, but you have mastered the art of talking to us as well. Regrettably, the people who ruled us and you are related to didn’t know how to talk to us when we were a step ahead of them instead.

Here is Morgan Freeman playing “Red” saying, “…..A young stupid kid who committed a terrible crime. I want to talk to him. I want to make some sense in to him, to tell him how things are. But I can’t, the kid is long gone, what is left is this old man…..”

selam paulos
It all takes 3 thing to know.
1, ” eyanebu esikesta”, dancing while crying, there is a song about it.
2, “t’eraz netek”
3, nonesese stubborn .
1+2+3=…..

Paulos

ቴድሮስ,

ምን’ነው በሰላም ነው? ጠፋህ’እኮ፣ ቦታውን ጭር ብሎ ነበር፣ እንኳን በደህና ተመለስክ!

Abi

Paul
The “Shawshank Redemption” is my all time favorite movie.
Red and Andy played it extremely well.

I’m disappointed that you don’t know me after years of exchanging punches, laughters, jokes…. I’m still hurting from your well placed punch.
Anyway, since you brought Red from the Shawshank Redemption, I have to invite you “If you don’t know me by now “ by Simply Red. How is that for paying back a favor?

A.Osman

Hello Abi,

You are very sensitive when people reminisce on the past and I feel you are concerned it fuels the hate towards the Amhara or Ethiopia. Trust me the majority of Eritrean can differentiate between the previous rulers and the poor Ethiopian people who also had to suffer during those times.

What would be helpful is to narrate what was happening in Addis and other Ethiopia cities around that period so it gives us a better understanding of the situation. It would be even more educational if from such articles the global events are discussed ie the oil crisis of 1973, the taxi drivers protest is Addis …etc..

Regards
AOsman

Abi

Hello AOsman
Glad you are around.
There is nothing Eritreans don’t know about derg’s atrocities towards Ethiopians.
As far as I am concerned, Eritreans can continue to hate Amharas in particular and Ethiopians in general until kingdom comes. As Red in the Shawshank Redemption said, I don’t give a sheet! What is interesting is the deafening silence from the elite Eritreans when it comes to Italian colonization. The author of this periodical propaganda material conveniently forgot about the lackdown Eritreans experienced during the Italian rule. Yes, Eritreans were not allowed to roam on Comishtato. They were not even to come to the city at night. It was considered trespassing!
Bar Danadai was out of reach for Eritreans except to wash dishes.
The propagandist can call it lockdown or lockout. It is all the same.

Paulos

Abination,

ዛሬ ለመጀመርያ ጊዜ ተናደሽ ሳይሽ. Never seen you losing your ኣማራ cool.

I want to tell you a story. It is an interesting story. But first we need to establish some facts. When we say ኣማራ elites, we mean Shoan elites for the ኣማራ in Gonder, Wollo, Begemidir and Gojam were equally marginalized and oppressed by the Shoan ኣማራ elites like any other people in the rest of the country. Now that out of the way, back to the story.

The first cabinet members of the King’s regime were practically composed of Shoan ኣማራ except one or two where one of them was an Oromo. His name was Yilma Deressa. He was brilliant through and through so much so that, he managed to get a scholarship in the early 50s to the prestigious London School of Economics. When he came back to Ethiopia after he finished his studies, he was made Minister of Finance. It was an extraordinary feat for an Oromo at that time but as “Red” put it, some birds are not meant to be caged. Now I want to take you to another story where we will see the connection later on.

In 1868, during the Meqdela expedition and siege, one of the British who accompanied Napier was a civilian named Charles. As it happened, during the confusion and commotion when Emperor Tewodros took his own life, Charles spotted a four years old kid roaming around with no adults around him. Felt pity on the kid, he decided to take him with him, when the British pulled back from Meqdela. At that time, Aden, Yemen was British headquarters if you will and the kid ended up in Aden. But the fact that, Charles had to go back to UK, he left the kid in Aden with a certain Colonel named Martin. After a couple of years, the Colonel got assigned to India and took the kid with him. And the fact that, he didn’t know the kid’s name when he was in Meqdela, he named him Charles Martin. The kid grew up in India, went to school there including to Medical School. Later on, he went to Scotland to do a residency in Surgery and it was then he was told that, he was originally from Ethiopia.

When British diplomats and other experts visited Ethiopia, they told Emperor Menilik about Charles Martin, and the Emperor got eager to meet him where he eventually did. When Charles Martin went to Ethiopia around the time of the Battle of Adwa, he helped many Ethiopians who needed medical treatments and when an older woman heard his story, she said, she was his grandmother and told him that his real name was Workneh Eshete and was known in Ethiopia as Dr. Workneh Eshete and Dr. Charles Martin anywhere else.

He got married to an Ethiopian woman and took her to Burma and studied Nursing there. Later on they both came back to Ethiopia produced a number of children and one of his daughters was named Elizabeth. And as it happened, Elizabeth married the self-made Oromo from a humble beginnings—Yilma Deressa! Yilma Deressa was later made an Ambassador to the US in the late 1950s and occupied high posts in the government till his sad fate was sealed when Dergue came to power.

One of his daughters, Sofia was one of the first women employed by the English newspaper Ethiopian Herald when she later married it’s Editor. And they both were thrown to jail when Dergue came to power. Her husband died in jail but she survived and in the 90s became a member of the Opposition party [Ethiopian Democratic Party–EDP] where Lidetu Ayalew was the Chairman. Her other sister, Hanna fled to Sudan and became one of the founders of EDU alongside General Nega Tegegn who was ironically superior of Mengistu Hailemariam when both were stationed in Harar. As I told you, it is a fascinating story so much so that, one has to earn a privilege when others are born with a silver-spoon in their mouths as Carnegie had famously put it.

Ismail AA

Selam Dr. Paulos,

Indeed an interesting story. Never seen in my reading of Ethiopia’s history. There is a story we all know about the only son of Emperor Tewodros II, Alemayehu, who taken to Britaink and died there at young age. I do not know whether later kings or administrations had requested repatriation of his remains as they did regarding other things like the Aksum obelisk from Italy, some crowns or the skull of Emperor Yohannes IV from Sudan.

About Emperor Tewodros’ son, politics of succession and legitimacy played some role. But, Alemayehu appears quite often in lyrics of folk music especially in Gonder.

Anything about this in your reading?

Paulos

Selam Kbur Haw Ismail AA,

Alemayehu was sad story and it is equally disappointing to see there is no much literature on his life even though his life was cut short.

As you know, he was taken by the Napier people but it remains unclear if Dr. Charles Martin [Workneh Eshete] made an attempt to keep in touch with him. What is interesting is that, Dr. Workneh Eshete fathered a child when he was in Scotland [assuming from a white woman] and named the child Tewodros. And it looks like he was too well connected to his roots even though we do not know much about his relations with Alemayehu.

Kim Hanna

Selam Paulos,

It is a small world indeed. First, as a Shoan Amhara, let me refine or limit the labeling of the “elite Shoan Amhara”. They might be a few dozen of individuals, at best at the bete mengist circles. The vast majority of Shoan Amharas, say 99%, were no different from any other.

I was mesmerized by your “Yilma Deressa” story. He lived behind the “Africa Hall” in my old neighborhood. All of us street kids knew who he was and were respectful.
You mentioned his daughters, I forgot their names, but the one who wore prescription glass, left a permanent impression on all of us young teenagers of that neighborhood.
She was westernized. She was dressed accordingly. She walked that walk, in a word she was beautiful.

Today is when I learned that some of the bizarre individual’s life accidents of history that was on full display in that neighborhood. Little did I know all that background.

In any case, it is always a joy to read you. One of the reasons I appreciate the Awate University is because of all the visiting professors like you. I hope you continue your science, history and political comments coming. I learn from each one. Thanks.

Mr. K.H

Paulos

Selam Ato Kim Hanna,

Many thanks for those kind words. Certainly the qualifier is the word “elite” where not every Shoan had a walk in the park day for the rest had a fair share of hardship like the rest of us as well. But again, power was intensely concentrated on the people who hailed from Shoa exclusively.

Yilma Deressa was not only the first Ethiopian Ambassadors to the US but he stayed in DC for much a longer time where his children including Sofia and Hanna attended High School there in the 60s. When he was recalled back to Addis, they had to join Colleges in Addis instead but Sofia started working for Ethiopian Herald for she knew the English language well. As we saw it earlier, Hanna fled to Sudan when her parents and sister were arrested and she started a Radio broadcast from Khartoum under the auspices of EDU. As it happened, Dergue even tried to kidnap her in Khartoum but she fought back and luckily she survived.

It is just amazing the fact that they had this eventful life and yet they overcame the hardship where others may have succumbed to depression and nervous breakdown. It is definitely not easy. Glad they are still alive to tell their story so that others can find inspiration.

Teodros Alem

selam paulos
U r wrong about shawan elite thing, first in every society the elites r the rulers , not the entire society or population, there is nothing exceptional there.
2nd, hs or menelik r not different from tewodros or yohannes , they all were Abyssinia emperors, regardless of thier origin, they all practiced the same system, abyssinian laws and rules. don’t forget the system was based on dej asemach, betewaded, ras, “king” and king of king style.
the only different hs or menelik has with the rest of Abyssinia emperors is they add southern ethiopia and ruled it same way.
What u said above is the wrong epdf history propaganda.

Abi

Paul
Interesting story as usual.
One important fact you forgot to mention was the king came to power by the help of ፊታውራሪ ኀብተጊዮርጊስ ዲነግዴ ( አባ መላ) who was half Oromo and half gurage. He became the first defense minister.
The king himself was half Oromo. I don’t understand this shoa amara is different from go jam or Gonder amara. There are less amaras in shoa than anywhere else. Only northern shoa is amara . As far as I know, shoa is a mix of everyone. Amara is only a small part.
I don’t understand the obsession with the poor amaras whether from shoa or Gonder. They were equally oppressed. Not everyone speaks Amharic is not Amhara. Leave the poor people alone. You have already used them to mobilize your people. ( አማራ ይበላሃል, አማራ ወሰደብህ…)
During both the king and the derg times Eritreans were at the highest positions in business or government. I see nobody talking about them except occasional bragging coming from the ungrateful lots.

Desbele

Selam Paul,
Interesting story, thanks for sharing. Hanna was once married to reknown author Sibhat Ghebregzihaber. I think it must be before she fled to Sudan.

Abi

Hello Desbele
በአሉ ግርማ has written about it in one of his books. I believe it was ደራሲው ወይም ከአድማስ ባሻገር::
እንደምታውቀው ጋሼ ስብሃትና በአሉ ግርማ ጏደኛሞች ነበሩ::
ነፍሳቸውን በገነት ያቆይልን::

Desbele

Hi Abi,
It is Derasiw

Abi

Desbele
Thanks. I was not sure which book.
It has been years since I read the books.

Paulos

Selam Desbele,

I didn’t know that but that is possible given all of them were of the Literati group in the 60s and 70s who had come back to Ethiopia after studying abroad. In fact, they remind me of Camus, Sartre and Simon de Beauvoir in Paris in the 50s; and Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway and Fitzgerald in the 20s.

In a way, they were not only privileged but they had a great life but one can appreciate the kind of contradiction and disillusionment they had about living in under-developed country with a rather conservative cultural and psychological bent when one reads ብኣሉ ግርማ’s brilliant novel, ከኣድማስ ባሻገር. Thank you for the interesting info.

A.Osman

Hi Abi,The author of this periodical propaganda material conveniently forgot about the lockdown or lockout Eritreans experienced during the Italian rule.
Come on, he is relating a lockdown he experienced, something vivid in his memory, while Italian colonialism is way before him and the suffering they caused will not register unless someone reads about it. I know friends who grew up as orphans and many who left Eritrea through Sudan at that time. That period had major impact in their personal future and it is not easily forgotten. Saying that, I don’t see them hate filled, but are mostly allergic to Ethio/Eritrean politics and any nostalgia of unity.

The new generation who were born after independence will have a less intense feeling about that past. It would be interesting to see what percentage will side with you on who is worse when comparing Derg vs PFDJ as your attempt with Simon failed.

Regards
AOsman

Abi

Hi AOsman
I let the author of this material to continue living in the past. He can republish the material every May 24th.
Regarding the comparison between derg and PFDJ, it is not important to spend time on it.

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

I have memory of my own and that of my best friend of that faithful day when were in JK. This story I don’t remember but it was story that’s being told by the elders (like my mother) when it’s told again. I will comment to the author, but he has captured it really well.

Abi, I think your problem is, you think any thing negative that’s said about Derg or HS, you take as if to create hate on the new generation. It’s far from it, if that’s the case, then we would not have the world remember every year the world war 1, 2 or the atrocities that happened.

Why do Ethiopians celebrate Adwa every year? Do you know how many Eritrean, got amputated of their arms and legs by Menlik, just because they were PoWs, while he spared the Italians.

To be honest, when this lock dows come, I said this reminds me the “ተፍታሽ” we use go through when we were kids during Derg times.

My cousin went to Addis last summer, and I felt sad when he told to me, there is ተፍታሽ in the city all the time. They just come and block the street and they go car to car to check the drivers. Sometime it last for couple of hours while they have children in the car and it gets hot.

It may be what they need to do, but please see where this is heading and history should be a reminder so that we can learn from it and to say “never again”. Sad we Eritrean haven’t from that history and we didn’t say “NO” to the PFDJ when he started incorporating all the measures the Derg was using and sadly we are paying for it.

About captured Eritreans who were amputated after the battle of Adwa –
Although it was an act that was much better if it didn’t have happened, nevertheless, characterizing Eritrean Askaris as POWs, in my opinion, doesn’t hold water.

Who declared war on Ethiopia, was it Italy or Eritrea? Of course, it was Italy.

What was the status of Eritrean askaris in the war? They were mercenaries.

Do mercenaries enjoy the status of POW? Not at all.

How about Ethiopians killed by the well armed Eritrean Askaris fighting for the Italian invading army at the battle of Adwa, and later on during the 5 yrs occupation of Ethiopia? Was Ethiopian killed in their own country and in their own homes by Eritrean Askaris, less important than Eritrean arms and legs? Can you imagine the number of Ethiopians killed by Eritrean mercenaries?

One can draw his/her conclusion.

Nitricc

What was the status of Eritrean askaris in the war? They were mercenaries.

Horizon: I don’t expect from ignorant Neftegna but they were forced, how can you label them as mercenaries? Do you know what the meaning of Mercenary? I am sorry Eritrea is next to you. Your stupidity has no boundary. No wonder why the 6% bend you for 27 years.

Eritrea is next to us, but she is far from you. You have never been there and you don’t know her. A one-cell brain can’t understand that Eritrean Askaris were characterized as mercenaries by all, when they fought for Italy in Ethiopia, Libya or Somalia. They were not fighting for their freedom, but for the enslavement of others.

They were forced? No, they did it for the money, they did it because they were proud to serve Italians wholeheartedly. When Ethiopian Askaris, few in number compared to Eritrean Askaris, heard about the coming from the west of the Ethiopian liberating forces, all of them defected to the liberating force, and started to fight the italian invaders with the neftegna, as you call them. Bending? No, Ethiopians fought their enemies, then and now. Stupidity? What can I say, could there be a stupid person than the one with a one-cell brain? I don’t think so. It shows.

It was your demigod who said, “in actual fact, it was Eritreans who were the colonizers and not Italians, because Eritreans did most of the fighting, the killing and dying in Ethiopia, Libya and Somalia, much more than the Italians themselves”. Funny, you see yourselves as colonizers, even when you live under a colonizer.

Girma

Selam Horizon,

It is true, as you said, there were Askaris who fought alongside the occupying powers.

It is also true that there were Askaris who served the occupying powers and at the same time feed the Ethiopian forces with important information that was crucial for the course of the war.

There were also Askaris who refused to fight their Ethiopian cousins alongside the occupying powers and were sentenced to death.

There were Askaris who switched to the Ethiopian side and fought alongside Menelik.

you see, the thing is not unequivocally black or white, it is more complicated.

David Samson

Selam Girma,

Fair, level-headed and balanced argument. You points demonstrated that seeing history in a very simplistic black and white myopic vision is down right bonkers.

I will up-pivot you 1000 times.

Saleh Johar

Hi Horizon,
The classification of Eritreans Askaris under Italy, and Eritrean wetahader under Ethiopia is the same. BTW, in Arabic, Askari means wetahader. They are either mercenaries in both cases, or forced soldiers (literally or to make a living)

Hey Abiy; don’t waste your self with nothing you know about. I wasn’t defeated like you, so, weather I am soldier or no body it should be your freaking business. Yes you were Derg soldier and some few and brave kicked your azz all the Sudan. What do you want? you know no shame to implicate me on your sour loser journey. you lost, get the freaking over with! something wrong with you Amara; never learn!

Abi

Hello ሚሊሽያ
Don’t lose the remaining brain cells on something not important. You need them when you play “ Call of Duty “.

Nitricc

Abiy you have all this hate in your heart, it is going to kill you. Why do you hate so much Eritrea and Eritreans? The fact is simple; you, the Amara and Oromo cross the border to kill, loot, dehumanize and burn the Eritreans and the brave once fought you with every thing they had and they dismantled you out the country. Now what exactly is your problem? My hope is you are not teaching your kids to hate Eritrea and Eritreans.

Abi

Hello ሚሊሽያ
Before you continue your bravado, go and visit your country. If you had an ounce of love and respect to your country and people, you would have visited by now.
የኤርትራን ካርታ እያሳዩ ገርፈውሃል እንዴ? ምነው ይህ ሁሉ ሽሽት?
እንደ ባዶ በርሜል ድምፅ አታብዛ::

Nitricc

Abiy The defeated Derg-soldier; if it wasn’t for your soldier mind; one should be all soldier to serve his-her country. There is many ways to serve and protect your country. I don’t have to be a soldier; I don’t have to go to Sawa. There are more issues I can work with, so get rid of that Derg garbage mentality. I know you are emboldened by wanna be digital weyane’s but make no mistake; there are real Eritreans once more to kick your azz. trust me.

Abi

ሚሊሽያ
I trust you. I trusted you when you said you want to lead your country.
All I want to know is what kind of remote control you are using to rule your country from thousands of miles away since you don’t know where it is. Are you a drone operator?

Nitricc

No; I am a drone nor I am defeated-Derg soldier. In fact, I rather be a drone, a remote control and whatever than defeated-Derg soldier who lives in grudge and regrets. Let it go man! the braves did it to you and sometimes that happen. give the braves their props and move on. they defeated you in the ratio of 1 to 20ow that is embarrassing, I know!

Abi

ሚሊሽያ
What is embarrassing is when you want to rule the country you can’t locate on the map. You have got no respect for the people or the country. Go play “Call of Duty “. This stuff is complicated for a single cell militia who is biting way more than he can chew. Come back later when you qualify.

Nitricc

really? And you are respectful? you are in here degrading Eritreans day and night on their forum and you want preach me about respect? I know; you are emboldened by the wanna be digital weyane and some old Eritrean who still have some kind of nostalgic about your backward evil Amara and Oromo government raiding Eritrea on your hey-day. The hate on your heart against Eritrea and Eritreans will destroy within. At this point I have no doubt what you teaching your kids about Eritrea and Eritreans. Why hate so much?
And yet, if hate the Eritreans so much why do you want to talk to them???????? hmmmmm.

Abi

ምልምል ሚሊሽያ
Defending my country and my people is not hating Eritrea or Eritreans. All I do is telling my part of the story against the non stop propaganda against the people of Ethiopia. I hope it sticks to your brainless skull. You are the one who laughed at the Eritreans who lost their lives in the Mediterranean see. You are the one who day and night belittling your people in the refugee camps in the “ backward country “. You called them useless failures . You are the one who missed a country that you don’t know or don’t want to visit and at the same time dreaming to rule over them. I just like to show you the level of hypocrisy oozing from your ears. ሚሊሽያ እፍረትም ድፍረትም የሌለህ ከንቱ ጉረኛ ነህ:: Go back to your video game. Come back when your cell count increased.
My hope is one day we will build a wall between us.

Saleh Johar

Abi,
I know, but I used the word as is. I also know “Teb Menja” which is Tebenja. BTW, the Egyptians also use the same word for a gun only spelling the J as g—Tebenga.
Thank you

Abi

Selam Ato Saleh
There is always something you pull out from your magic hats.
I just learned the origin was Teb Menja.
Thank you

Paulos

Selam Ayay,

That is really cool stuff to know. Thank you and please keep them coming and now I realise why you wear a hat. Didn’t know it was a magic one.

Simon Kaleab

Selam Saleh G.,

A mercenary is a soldier of fortune primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics.

The Eritrean soldiers were Italian colonial subjects recruited to the Italian army. They were paid pittance salaries and used as canon fodder. They were not mercenaries.

The British and the French had similar armies.

Paulos

Selam Horizon,

In 1941, hundreds of South-Africans, Kenyans, Indians and Sudanese soldiers accompanied Colonel Wingate and King Haileselassie when the latter marched from Sudan to Addis to defeat the Italian invading force in Ethiopia.

Now the question is: Were the South-Africans, Kenyans and Indians mercenaries? No! They were British subjects. By the same token, the 130,000 Eritrean soldiers who were enlisted with in the Italian defence force since the beginning of the Colony in the early 1890s till 1941 were Italian subjects instead. Not mercenaries.

The unfortunate circumstances of the 800 captured Eritrean soldiers [8000 Eritrean soldiers participated in the Battle of Adwa, 2000 of them were killed and 800 were captured] when their limbs were amputated has left a grudging stain among Eritreans to this day where zealots and downright racist Eritreans [very few] are making a political capital out of it.

The question is why was the verdict to cut their limbs rendered but the Italian POWs were let free? Well, a legal scholar may make the argument of “Deterrence” and from a philosophical argument, it was Teleological and from political point of view it was a clear cut Machiavellian Realism where the end justified the means. But at the end of the day, it was power politics over legal polemics that counted, precisely because, in a historical precedence, Emperor Yohannes let the Napier expedition pass to get to Emperor Tewodros and King Menilik made an arrangement with the Italians when they wanted to get to Emperor Yohannes. Both acts were acts of treason but treason remained moot for not only Absolutism ruled the day but it was political expediency at the cost of fragmentation of a nation.

But again, if anything came out of the cruel act of amputation [they were amputed without anesthetics and prophylactic antibiotics to prevent any infection from the wound], it was the intense propaganda where Tigreans were made the villains and Menilik was sanctified when it was said that, it was the Tigrean warlords who pushed for the punishment but Menilik elected for clemency. The truth of the matter is however, it was cruel and inhuman and Menilik ought to be held responsible for it for he had the last say on all matters including of an issue of the highest magnitude.

The South Africans, Kenyans and Indians and others were fighting against world-wide Fascism and Nazism, from Germany to Japan, for the freedom of those who were enslaved or about to be enslaved, in other words for the free world, contrary to Eritrean Askaris who fought on the side of the colonizer and enslaving power. There is a big difference there.

In general terms mistreating the vanquished to send a message was not right. It should have been known that they were helpless. Other ways of punishment were possible. Nevertheless, saying that Eritrean askaris were innocent and they didn’t inflict huge damage to Ethiopia and Ethiopians throughout their history is not right.

Paulos

Selam Horizon,

There is no moral equivalence or ambiguity to choose from with a luxury when you are a subject. You are expected to follow orders and honor them. And Eritrean soldiers obeyed orders for the same reason.

I am sure you know that many Eritrean soldiers collaborated with the Ethiopians with passing on vital intelligence updates during the active battle where it changed the balance of the war. Perhaps, we need to be fair lest swipe with the same brush across the canvas so to speak. Moreover, If it is of any interest at all, Dej. Hailesellasie Gugsa, the great-grand son of Emperor Yohannes defected to the Italians during the second Italian invasion and later on he served them not because he was a subject but a sell-out which stands in a sharp contrast to the wrongfully accused Eritrean soldiers when they were following orders as all soldiers do in every nation including in colonial Great Britain irrespective of its moral or political standing.

Teodros Alem

selam paulos
U said “were the south africans, kenyans, indians mercenaries”
now i want u always to be consistent with ur logic. In other words, ur above statement shows “eritrean askaris” were not a traitors of thier own country ethiopia , they did not betray thier own country(ethiopia).
ur above statement also shows ur other usual logic that say “eritrea was part of ethiopia” before Italia colony, before menelik was wrong.

A.Osman

Selam Tedros,

They were not Ethiopians, how are they traitors. The only crime you can accuse them off is that they were subject of a colonial power, if that is a crime.

Secondly, you can’t use anti-colonial credential to point fingers, while slavery within Ethiopia proper was live and kicking.

While the country was carved from Tedros to Menelik, there are many people living within the confine of current Ethiopia, who suffered much and would happily side with the Italian.

This is not to diminish the crimes of the Italians, especially the killing from air bombardment.

Regards
AOsman

Teodros Alem

selam a osman
stop mixing things up.
The slave r none abyssinians, there is no history that show one Abyssinian enslave other abyssinian and u r mixing two things up and it doesn’t matter if Abyssinia/ethiopia was carved by tewodros to menelik , it is irrelevant from my point to paulos.
paulos always tell us eritrea was part of ethiopia before Italian colonization and today she/he changed his/her mind told us they r like south africans, indians, kenyans, so the askaris were not traitors.

A.Osman

Selam Tedros,

No worries, ayt-khori

The slaves were none abyssinians…….

When the word traitors was used, it was from a Habesha centric perspective. Even when the Allied Force were retaking back Ethiopia from the Italians, there were tribes (I think from the Oromo) who sided with the Italians. The choice was between one exploiting your land and the other enslaving your people……

Regards
AOsman

Teodros Alem

selam a osman
U r still mixing the battle of adawa with the the war that happed 40 years later.
at the battle of adawa i never heard any ethiopian(ethio tribes) siding with italia except few individuals the likes of hs gugsa. but the 5 years italia invasion of ethiopiia, some ethiopians including amharas worked and sided with the occupied force and they r considered traitor and most of them punished by death, hanged on the streets. And ethiopia at the time of the battle of adawa and ethiopia after 45 years was different.
The point and my argument with paulos was , if eritrea was habesha and part of habesha(Abyssinia) before Italian colony, so they were a traitor. if they were not part of habesha(abyssinia) the askaris were like kenyans or Indians or south africans.

Berhe Y

Hi Horizon,

I was not trying to be technical and I am not trying to sue and getting compensation. Call them what ever name you call them, but the act is plane wrong and inhumane. May be it was ok during that time, may be he used it to teach a lesson, may be he was just brutal, either way you look at it, it’s wrong. If he did same to the Italians, I would find justifiable, but he didn’t.

I never have been in a battle but I have seen enough documentaries (real) to know, after battle is lost and those who lose the battle and surrender are usually helpless soldiers who were taking orders and they know their lives is at the hands of those who capture them. But they families, the have children and wife that they left behind. They know they will not be in any position to cause harm…..

If he gave them mercy and sent them home, I think our outlook towards Ethiopia may have been different….

On the other hand, as an Eritrean, I can tell you that the so called “wenbedewoch” have done remarkable well to the captured Ethiopia Soldiers.

Berhe

Abi

Berhe
Stop this bragging about things you don’t know. We have witnessed Ethiopian civilians evicted from their homes and humiliated by their Eritrean neighbors during your euphoric days. You kicked out all non Tigrinya speaking Ethiopian civilians from your country. It was illegal and inhuman and never imagined that kind of brutality from a neighbor. Each and every Eritrean is responsible for that shameful act.

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

I am not bragging, I know what happened to the Ethiopian soldiers captured in the war. EPLF captured Soviet soldiers and handed them over to the Soviet Union and they captured Ethiopian soldiers and they tried so hard to hand them over to the Red Cross (but the Red Cross refused). There is a video interview of Colonial Bezabih speaking with reporters. What happened to him the second time he was captured, I think it’s sad. I hope he is alive and he get out. He was a solider and he had only two options (1) obey the order 2) refuse and court marshaled. I sympathize with him and his family.

You make this story up every time you have a chance. It’s false as far as I know…no Ethiopian civilian who was living in Eritrea was ever evicted from Eritrea unless they left in their own.

I grew up in Eritrea, I know who were the Derg soldiers, who were the espa political members, who were the spy of the Derg government and what happened to them.

1) The Derg millitary leaders, either they left before being captured, moved to where they come from.
2) the civilians who, some were Ethiopians others were Eritrean married to them, either left with them together or stayed behind and continued to live peacefully.
3) those spies and those esepa members who use to terrorize the neighbourhood, with their endless “sbseba” and “mefeker” either they left (run away), detained or I don’t know, may be some even might be killed.
4) The Ethiopian business who were civilians and operate their business in Eritrea (mostly are from Tigray), they continued to liv in peace.

I am speaking in my own neighborhood, but I am sure many can say similar.

There was no Ethiopian that come to Eritrea established a civilian business, like a mechanic, a shop, etc.

Except those from Tigray, most of them were part of the Ethiopian administrations, either millitary, or “seb selTan” with exception of few teachers.

So I know what I am talking about it.

As far as Menlik, and his coward act, he is just like those warlords before him. All this inflated Royal this, Ras that story that we are bombarded here, does not justify he is just a warlord like all others before him.

The Eritrean soldiers were Italian soldiers, they were not mercenaries who were paid to go to war. They were hired and trained and were serving the Italian administration in Eritrea way before the war and that Menlik signed and recognized to be an Italian administration.

Were the Indian soldiers who were fighting with the British mercenaries.

Berhe

Abi

Berhe
Either you don’t have any clue about what you are talking or you are covering up the shameful acts you committed on the Ethiopians.
I’m not looking for conformation from you. I’ve seen them all over Addis. You can’t be a valid witness in this case. You were too drunk to remember.

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

What ever you say, boss.

Berhe

Teodros Alem

selam berhe
I think Nitricc will never gonna get it , if he don’t get u guys until today . I know a camp used to be dergs ” eresha sebel” ( depo for agriculture products), around “sarise” addis ababa, that camp was used as a shelter for deported ethiopians from eritrea after derg defeat, before “bademe” war and most of the deported were civilians from tigrai and some has a family member from derg army and derg civilian administrate but all of them were civilians.

Simon Kaleab

Selam Abi,

The topic under discussion is the treatment of prisoners of war (POWs) and not civilian deportations. Stay on topic.

During the 30-year war, the EPLF had not displayed a culture of maltreatment of POWs.

Deportations: In 1991, there were none. But during 1998-2000, both governments were at fault.

Abi, you are making up stories. You are a story maker. What are you going to tell us next, that Churchill and Hitler were classmates at Harrow Grammar School?

Abi

Simon
You can deny anything and everything.
The 98 deportation was the second time that happened to Ethiopians. This time to the remaining Ethiopians of Tigray origin. They were spared from deportation the first time around due to the situation at that time.
Anyway, your conformation is not required. You can deny your shameful acts anywhere and anytime.

Paulos

Abination,

I agree with you. When everyone one in raving mood right after independence, women [most of them were Tigreans] who had been married to Ethiopian soldiers were kicked out with humiliation and their adult children to Ethiopia save the untold stories after 98.

Abi

Paul
Proud to call you my half brother with a much better gene.

Semere Tesfai

Selam Gash Abi
“Women [most of them were Tigreans] who had been married to Ethiopian soldiers were kicked out with humiliation and their adult children to Ethiopia save the untold stories after 98.” (Paulos)

“Paul: Proud to call you my half brother with a much better gene.” (abi)

That’s exactly what we’ve been telling you. He is one of the Dergue babies who were terrorizing Eritrean residents. And he’s still nostalgic about the good old Dergue days. You just didn’t get!

Keep him close to your heart; you won’t be disappointed.

Semere Tesfai

Abi

ወንድም አማች
You are more credible than the nostalgic derg babies. Go ahead put on your ሼዳ for comfort and courage and tell us all you know.
I’m listening.

Semere Tesfai

Selam ወንድም አማች

“Go ahead put on your ሼዳ for comfort and courage and tell us all you know. I’m listening.”

There is not much to talk about. It’s all on the rearview mirror. My babies are riding the pristine waters of the Red Sea wearing their fathers Shida; and the Dergue babies are watching from close distance with nostalgia.

Semere Tesfai

Abi

ወንድም አማች
Looks like you put your ሼዳ on your head. You are not thinking well.
Last time I checked your babies are in Ethiopian refugee camps and sawa slavery camp and toiling in the non ending slavery service. The derg babies are enjoying the pristine waters of their Red Sea.
This time I suggest you put on your ሼዳ at the proper place and try again.

Semere Tesfai

Selam Gash Abi

“Last time I checked your babies are in Ethiopian refugee camps and sawa slavery camp and toiling in the non ending slavery service.”

Eritreans don’t go to Ethiopia. Eritreans pass through Ethiopia to reach their final destination – of course few get stranded there like in everywhere else. Have you ever heard an Eritrean sending money home working in Ethiopia? Have you ever heard a story of a single Eritrean who built a house at home working in Ethiopia? But….

I’ve heard a story that there are more Ethiopian doctors in the city of Chicago than there are in the entire country (Ethiopia). I’ve heard there are more Ethiopian doctors in South Africa than there are in the entire Amara and Oromia Killils combined. I know for the fact the name Ethiopia is synonymous with hunger and begging. In fact Habesha winter is coming and I expect Ethiopia to beg for food aid – soon – while you’re bragging here.

The point: stop your nonsense. Ethiopia is as poor as Eritrea. Ethiopians refugees and immigrants are all over the planet like Eritreans.

As the Khuwaja saying goes: The pot calling the kettle black

Semere Tesfai

Abi

ወንድም አማች
I mentioned the hardships just to show you your babies are not enjoying the pristine waters of the Red Sea. See, you were the one bragging while conveniently forgetting those suffering under ባባ ኢሳያስ. I was not bragging at all.
Thanks for happily reminding me that Ethiopia is a poor country. I almost forgot about it.
One more thing, Ethiopian medical school students have made a commitment to treat Eritreans in different parts of your country. ( ገንዘብካ) . I know they have done it at least once. It will continue as long as you behave. We are nice people!
One other thing, there are more Eritrean youth in Ethiopia than in Eritrea. I’m talking about the free Eritreans. Those languishing under the slavery services and those under sawa boot camp are not included.
One last thing, mentioning how poor Ethiopians are at any opportunity you got doesn’t make you any richer . It is not also expected from a ሼዳ wearing person who has seen it all. Nitricc will cover that department for you.
Can I add one more? Thanks.
There are very rich Eritreans in Ethiopia.
You look good with your ሼዳ on your head.
አመድ በዱቄት ሲስቅ
ልቡ በነፋስ ውልቅ!
ይላሉ ዘመዶቼ አንዳንዶች “ለማኝ” ሲሏቸው::

Semere Tesfai

Selam Abi

1. – “I mentioned the hardships just to show you your babies are not enjoying the pristine waters of the Red Sea. See, you were the one conveniently forgetting those suffering under ባባ ኢሳያስ.”

I know how much you care about Eritrean lives; have seen it and lived through it. Thank you for caring.

2. – “Thanks for happily reminding me that Ethiopia is a poor country. I almost forgot about it.”

I don’t have to remind you; just visit home. If you can’t for some reason, just read/listen to current events and you will see/read – 15 million Ethiopians in need of urgent food aid

3. – “Ethiopian medical school students have made a commitment to treat Eritreans in different parts of your country. ( ገንዘብካ) . I know they have done it at least once. It will continue as long as you behave. We are nice people!”

4. – “One other thing, there are more Eritrean youth in Ethiopia than in Eritrea.”

I don’t know how you feel about it, but there are that many young Ethiopians in Yemen. Some women as young as 12 years old. Think: Ethiopians dying crossing the Red Sea to reach Yemen.

5. – “I’m talking about the free Eritreans in Ethiopia. Those languishing under the slavery services and those under sawa boot camp are not included.”

Ethiopia never been a place of freedom for Eritreans. Never! Not during Yohaness IV, not during Menelik II, not during Haileselassie, not during Mengistu, not during Meles. Even today, the Sawa Tigers are sleeping with one eye open, pointing their guns South.

You call it Wunbdna we call it Revolution. You call them Wenbediewoch we call them Freedom Fighters. You call it slavery we call it defending Eritrean sovereignty. One last thing: I don’t worry when you trash Eritrea and Eritreans; I worry when you praize Eritrea and Eritreans – it brings bad memories.

6. – “Can I add one more? Thanks. There are very rich Eritreans in Ethiopia.”

Probably sleeping with one eye open? When are you going to confiscate their property and deport them? I hope you’re going to deport them without chopping off their arms and legs.

Was pleasure conversing with you. Take care and be safe.

Semere Tesfai

Abi

ወንድም አማች
Don’t worry about yours truly praising Eritreans. I don’t remember doing that. Actually, I don’t remember anyone praising anything Eritrean except the Isu’s representatives in this forum. What is there to praise except their dominance in cycling. That is worth praising . Find me something I missed worthy of praise. You are safe in this regard. Don’t worry.

It is always good conversing with you.
Be safe.

Semere Tesfai

Selam ወንድም አማች

“Actually, I don’t remember anyone praising anything Eritrean. What is there to praise? Find me something I missed worthy of praise.”

Their forgiving trusting and humble heart, their radiant personality, their infectious smile, their overwhelming generosity towards their families friends and neighbours, their God fearing law abiding ethics………. just to mention a few.

Abiy do you remember who was the first person you communicated for the first time on this forum? here you have it. Back then your name was Abinet.

Abi

ሚሊሽያ
The first person was Ato Saleh. I remember mentioning that I’m an Ethiopian in my first comment. My comment was regarding the arrogance of Eritreans. In his response he said that I was wrong to generalize and put all Eritreans in one umbrella.
One more thing
It was the famous LT who called me Abi the first time here.

Next question?

Nitricc

Ex-Dergu wetader; it wasn’t not. I think old age coupling with Derg memory is getting you. And stop lying i didn’t lough. I said we all have to take responsibility for our actions; they gamble and they lost i.e. they are responsibility for what happened to them. I said it then i will say it now. i am backward Ethiopian who blames everything for anything. Now Ex-Dergu, he wasn’t Salih. Your heart if full of hate instead of taking responsibility. Eritreans released 100K your kind free who killed thousands of innocent people. for that alone; you could have give the Eritreans some credit but you are what you are, ungrateful backward Ethiopian.

Abi

ሚሊሽያ
Are you trying to outsmart Semere Tesfai in reminding me how backward Ethiopians are? Looks like I got two for the price of one. Not a bad bargain to be honest with you. You call one, two of them will come! Love it! Love it! Love it!

Why don’t you go and visit your modern Eritrea? Make sure to ship your food and basic necessities three months in advance. Ship everything in the blue barrel. That barrel becomes handy when you go to fetch water. Make sure to fly Eritrean airlines.
Bon Voyage!

Nitricc

Dergu wetader; You lucky Eritreans chose to be independent; have they not, if TPLF thugs can bend you for 27 years with 5th grade education; can you imagine how long the Eritreans could have bend you? eternity Now if you have any guts build the well and make sure you take the TPLF thugs with you. your country is nothing but an embarrassment for Africa. Where in Africa will see people hanged up-side down in 21 century? you guessed it, Ethiopia, your country. have some shame.

Abi

ሚሊሽያ
I’m waiting for your other half to appear. That way I respond to you together.
In the meantime, you deal with the Agazians. You and your better half are busy telling me how backward Ethiopians are while losing ground ( can I say literally here?) to the agazians.
እዋይ ጉድ መፂዩ

Nitricc

Wetaderu; I have a question? your hate to Eritrea and Eritreans did it come after your were defeated with bloody nose from Eritrea or this hate of your was intact when you were in Eritrea? with this hate of yours and informant your half brother; god knows how many Eritreans you have killed.

Abi

ሚሊሽያ
This is beyond your one cell brain can handle. You don’t qualify for this kind of conversation. How about if you come back after consulting your programmer?

Berhe Y

Hi Paulos,

I can’t help it…even thought I am not really interested to communicate with you..

women [most of them were Tigreans] who had been married to Ethiopian soldiers were kicked out with humiliation and their adult children to Ethiopia save the untold stories after 98.

wow you are something…can you please tell it with facts…

Berhe

Paulos

I am not really interested communicating with you either.

Nitricc

Hi Berhe; here you have it, a perfect illustration digital weyane at duty. She have no shame trying to fool the fools.

Berhe Y

Hi Nitricc,

We have been warning about digital weyane but I didn’t think they will have this much impact to come in and spoil our unity and our country.

1) Abraham Zere, who was former journalist and currently chair of PenEritrea wrote in his facebook about the agazian the Tesfazion. He said, like most of us he has ignored him but last time he had a live session (may be facebook) he had over 10,000 people tuned in to listen to him. He said, he failed for not acting sooner but someone like him who has the ability and the responsibility to do something. He said he will take it upon him and try what ever he can to stop this guy from using the free platform to cause maximum damage to our country and our unity. He is looking for any one with legal back ground to reach out to him and help hands.

2) Last week, there has been certain people on facebook who enraged Eritrean Christian and Muslim population. The response has been for the most part very measured and the most majority of those people understand the danger that’s coming and they are united like before.

3) Tigray media online or what ever they are called, they have been increasing their campaign to create the division among Eritreans, by repeating (Tigray south, Tigray North) terms that has never been used in Eritrea before. If a Tigraway come to Eritrea he is called “Tigraway” nothing else, we never called him “Tigrigna from south”.

4) A lot of Eritreans including me, are convinced this is coming from Tigray, TPLF and to create division among Eritrean population in their attempt to grab Eritrea. It started with Agazian, then Tigrana-south, Tigrina-North and now it’s heading to Eritrean Muslims / Christians.

5) Next, I am afraid they will sponsor and proceed to physical harm and damage and violence. They will create violence to divide the people among religion so the people are fighting each other and weaken our unity while they watch from a distance, protecting their region while the rest of us burn each other.

If I am sounding the alarm and I am totally wrong, I would rather be wrong now rather than be wrong later.

I urge all of you peace loving Eritreans to use what ever means you have to calm the situation and stop this maniacs from inflicting damage among our people.

I am going to have to take a step back and prioritize topic that I will chose to engage.

Berhe

A.Osman

Selam Berhe,

The lockdown has exacerbated the situation and as the saying goes “fiqri hindi bherfi, fiqri habesha bxerfi”, there is competition with verbal combat. What is disappointing is so called intellectuals getting dragged in that fire. The storm is temporary, people will mellow down when they know there is nothing to gain from all the shouts.

As for the agazians, their attempt to forced union is similar to the past forced union with Ethiopia. It is futile, the majority of Eritreans will reject them. The interview with Tesfasion attracted many as social media attracts controversy, that is all.

AOsman

Nitricc

Wediere; as the old days you used call your self. Is true, it is not going to materialized This Agazi BS but it will create suspicion, division and will destroy the Eritreans amazing unity.There are anyways we can battle this and one of them and the main one is elect a Muslim lowlander as a next president of Eritrea. that is the first step.That will shock them and shout them up.Trust me,

A.Osman

Dear Nitricc,

You are right that it will cause suspicion, pain and suffering, but I don’t believe it will destroy Eritrea.

The little that I know of Tesfasion, he does not hold his tongue, he has virtually upset Muslims and Christians (all denominations)…that’s his work on the base. Then you hear an active person on social media joining, the next thing getting kicked out.

Old habits dies hard, I suspect after stealing money using a charity in UK supposedly to support people with AIDs/HIV and being banned from running a company, he found the Agazian movement to earn money.

The movement may be picking currency in Tigray as some after loosing political influence Ethiopia, Eritrea seems the place to turn their face to and the agazian movement may be given some comfort. However, a reasonable Tigrayan will not buy what the agazians are promising……a red carpet laid on top the other half of Eritrea…..

AOsman

Berhe Y

Dear A. Osman,

I too have ignored him in the past and like you said, he will not find a lot of Eritrean buyers to what he is selling. But to actually get 10,000 people to listen to him is a socking to me (I understand the reason) that many people have too much time on their hands.

Like I said I like to be wrong, but if the hate and division he spreading by who ever is behind supporting him and turn to physical division by implementing harm then I can see where this can flare up to something else and turn to real physical violence, no matter who started it, it doesn’t take much. We have seen what happened in Ethiopia (few months ago) people who lived in peace all their lives, come at each other in places like Harer and other places.

We should not be always reacting to situation and keep repeating the same message again and again to no end. We need to anticipate the danger that’s looming and we have to take actions before it happened. If we had him shut down long time ago, by now we would have the experience at our disposal in how to treat anyone like him who uses the platform to spread hate speech.

Berhe

መሃንድስ-ምዕባለ

Hi Berhe,
What is your proposed solution? This guy’s theory is flawed. He is full of hate. He insults everyone, including the Orthodox church.
If you are so serious about this, my recommendation would be to start with a petition to both You Tube [Google] & Facebook.
Where are our people who are with legal background?
I am sure this guy is hiding under the free speech but they can find something to shut his videos down.
His main purpose is Money, I believe. I don’t think this guy can have a normal job. He seems so lazy. He is simply FAKE.
Just my two cents

Nitricc

Hi Berhe; let me tell you from the heart. Most of the people on this forum don’t get my point. They wonder why i hang on PFDG. The simple reason is, i have no chioce. Getting rid of PFDG is the least problem of Eritrea there is deeper and more danger for the people and state of Eritrea. I will explain when i get home.I opposed all the YaAkil and other BS movement because that the path to crack and destroy Eritrea. will explain, when i get home.

Berhe Y

Dear Haile S.

I was wondering where you are these day, and I was about to ask Abi. But I am glad that you are and hope all is good.

Berhe

Haile S.

Selam Berhe,

I am doing fine. I hope you too. Like you guys, we are on lockdown, but I have to be at work everyday and was kind of more busier. I am attending class in silence, but will talk when opportunity presents.
Best

Is she, Paulos?
I think Dr. Paulos is the heart and soul of Eritrea. I wish he was Ethiopian.I some times wonder where and when that mantra of …Revolution eats its children stop.
I am afraid this is the perfect illustration.

Mr. K.H

Nitricc

Hey Kim: how do you know that when you said;

Simon Kaleab

Abi,

You need to stay on topic, and not try to escape with fabrications.

Was Menelik right to amputate the Eritrean POWs, from the moral and also tactical point of view?

Abi

Simon
Good question
He should have put them in prison.
Hindsight is twenty/ twenty. Here we have the luxury to pass judgment hundred years after the incident.

Simon Kaleab

Abi,

Menelik had a reputation of being clever, he should have freed them. It would have been a good investment to capture the hearts and minds of Eritreans. But he acted dumb.

Abi

Simon
Would have, could have, should have…
I tell you who played dumb when it comes to Eritrea, HS and Derg.
It was not worth lifting a finger to bring the ungrateful Eritreans back. It was also stupid to invest time and resources to win the heart and mind of Eritreans. Bad investment all around. Ethiopia is better off without Eritrea. We paid dearly for no substantial return. Hindsight is 20/20.
Build the Wall!!

You keep on saying hindsight. But war is not a novel [new] phenomena. Wars have been fought for centuries, lost and won and POWs captured.

Had Menelik released the Eritrean POWs, he would have scored a moral and a tactical [hearts and minds] victory over Italy.

Abi

Simon
You are unusually slow today.
As I said several times, it has always been a futile effort to win the heart and mind of Eritreans. It was a deadly mistake which I realized a little bit too late.
Even the current “we are one people two countries” BS should be stopped ASAP.

Simon Kaleab

Abi,

Unfortunately, it is you who became a slow boat to China. Admit it, Menelik was acting dumb on the POWs issue.

Admassie

Selam Simon,

Yes, there were evicted Ethiopians from Eritrea in 1991. Some of those families were living, first on the street around Sidist Kilo. Later on, they were sent to a place called Qorie, near to Alert Hospital, south of Addis.

As much as we want others to acknowledge the pain we feel on our side, we need to be also sensible enough to do the same to the pain felt on the other side. The eviction is a forgone fact. What benefit is there in denying?

Berhe Y

Hi Admassie,

You are very sensible guy and I wanted to learn what happened, as I do not want to deny. Do you know if civilians were deported from Eritrea? Or they left in their own. Let me tell you some of the true story that I know….

I have given example to what may happened to those Ethiopian who were not civilians. I will give you an example.
1) We have a neighbor who was married to an Ethiopian military official. She was Tigriayan, when I asked what happened to her, my parents told me she left with her husband.

2) There was one guy who use to be ESPA member but worked in Insurance. He use to carry a gun and he was well connected. He too was a Tigrayan, and his wife was Eritrean. I know his children very well. He packed and took his family with him and including his wife and children and moved to Addis Abeba.

3) I know another guy who use to be liqe member in one of the kefteNa, he too was a Tigrayan and he packed and left.

4) I have a aunt who was married to a Tigryan guy and who owned small business, he didn’t live and was doing ok. He got divorced with his wife later on and sold his business and moved on.

5) I had a friend whose parents are from Tigray and they owned business. He was one of the best soccer players when we grew up. His eldest daughter married to an Eritrean guy. His father had other business in Addiss Abeba and he left the business for his daughter (son in law) and moved to Addis, most of his children went with him. My friend played for Ethiopian national team and we still keep in touch he lives in the US now.

Berhe

Abi

Berhe
That is only 5 families you generously mentioned. I’m talking about 168,000 PEOPLE. Meles later on admitted the illegal and inhuman actions committed against the defenseless Ethiopians.

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

Even if only 5, if it’s done and if it’s wrong, it’s wrong. I listed 5 but if everyone else listed another five you will have a big number.

There were 300,000 army members in Eritrea at the time. The army didn’t send women, so 168K family member of those 300K sounds correct number.

Since you like to give accurate facts, according to you..why don’t you tell me what were those people (other than the army members) doing in Eritrea? And how is it, Eritrean government and people fault if they decided to leave with their husbands and family.

Were you expecting the Ethiopian millitary to stay in Eritrea and lead a normal civilian life? I am just asking what were you expecting.

As far as the what Melles admits, I don’t know when and why and for what reason. Let alone to care about Eritrean military deported from Eritrea, weren’t the TPLF fired all the Ethiopian soldiers can called them Derg soldiers.

I am not saying there was nothing wrong was done, but we heard all this exaggerated lies many times..even they took out the gold from their teeth and deported them. And the apostle of {…} is telling use “kicked out with humiliation and their adult children to Ethiopia” what a bunch of BS.

Berhe

Abi

Berhe
You don’t need to be irritated.
It is not a BS as you want to call it.
As I told you before you have got no clue at all.

Berhe Y

Hi Abi,

You can believe what you like to believe but if you are so sure, who the people you are talking about and what their role in Eritrea was, then you wouldn’t be afraid to reveal it.

What was those Ethiopians were doing in Eritrea.

I ask you 100 times but you avoid to answer. Were they civilians leading civilian life in Eritrea? A simple question, you can answer in three ways.

1) yes they were civilians
2) No they were not, they were part of the Ethiopian administration/ military or related to them.
3) I don’t know.

Why is this so hard for you to say if you have the facts.

Then let the people who are reading this make their own judgements.

I think they were 2, and if they left Eritrea I don’t see anything wrong with it. I don’t expect the bank managers, the factory managers, the governor or head of police, head of the courts, etc to stay in Eritrea and continue to run the country.

What kind of logic is this, then what was the independence all about. In the first place they were put in power, not because if their merit but by the ruling government.

So if you want to argue, then argue with a point that make sense or with facts to support your arguments.

What do you think happened to the Germans who were ruling occupied France after WW2 ended.

Berhe

Abi

Berhe
I’m not looking for a judgment from you or any person in this forum.
This is not a court of law. I don’t need a witness, a jury, a judge or a bailiff in this case. I have seen the people all over Addis. You have already passed your judgment when you illegally and inhumanly deported the defenseless people.
Not too long after you deported the Ethiopians, you kicked out the Jehovah Witnesses. If you remember that incident, you were chanting ጀሆቫ ማይ በላ or something like that.

A.Osman

Selam Abi,

I thought Meles mentioned the deportation when interviewed by awate or assenna, my memory is vague. There is an article related to it in dehai about an interview with Addis Zemen Newspaper (Aug 1991).

If there is a study that was conducted or a report from an independent organization it will be educational to share. Whatever happened, we will have to accept the fact, we may differ on the justification.

AOsman

Abi

Hello AOsman
I know Ato Saleh had an interview with The visionary Meles.
Glad you are here to dig buried information.
Meles’ interviews back in the days were full of lies. Addis Zemen was his propaganda outlet. Meles had no freedom to say anything remotely true to the situation while he was sleeping under Isu’s bed.
Later on when he deported Eritreans during the boarder war, he totally changed his narrative. By the time he stopped liking the color of your eyes, he changed his mind.
When Addis Zemen interviewed Meles, the deportees were all over the city.
People have the right to pick and choose what they want to believe. What they can’t do is change the facts.
I tend to believe my eyes more than I trust Addis Zemen ( Meles mouthpiece) Meles or Dehay ( Isu mouthpiece) .

Who in his right mind trust The Visionary Meles? Only those who lost their vision.

Thank you for digging out this document. I have not read this interview before, but I can say that’s really my understanding of the whole situation.

Berhe

Admassie

Selam Berhe,
My comment was meant to Simon’s assertion that says ” Deportations: In 1991, there was none.” which is not accurate.

On who were the expelled and in what manner: I trust your accounts. Yes, there were many military families who left voluntarily fearing repercussions. But at the same time there were many similar families and civilians who were expelled. Some of them stripped thier possession, per their account.

Your example implied that some were still continue living and doing their business peacefully. Of course there were many. It is only we prefer to capitalize on the bad. Four to five fold to the number of evicted Eritreans were remaining living in Ethiopia in 1998 But, we talk as if none were left.

Any ways, in the absence of independently investigated report or study to the 1991 incident, the actual picture remains always blurred and will be a source of vicious arguments.

Nitricc

Hi Berhe; don’t waste your time trying to knock some sense to senseless people. They are driven by grudge and revenge instead of reason and reality. They just couldn’t believe it how few armed Eritreans can destroy their hundreds of thousands of Amara, Oromo and the rest, armed with the latest weapons there were and still the brave and the few not only destroyed the Amara, Oromo and the rest cry babies but left them land locked. Now, you tell be Berhe, how do you expect them to reasonable and talk you in that manner? they can’t. the good think is they will die holding on that never ending grudge, revenge and hatred. They will never change they are too old to change.

Ismail AA

Hayak Allah Ismael,

A brilliant article as usual. A good writer gets motivation from current circumstances that impact life. That is what provoked you to come out with such a relevant contribution that drew out attention to similar developments that had impacted life in our Capital.

After reading this great article, one cannot help but to pause and contemplate on a point this sentence carries: “The people of Asmara were anxiously waiting for Asmara to be liberated and to see the end of their nightmare”. Unfortunately, the emotive response of people like me is an emphatic No; it indeed turned out to not what the peace loving people of Asmara had dreamed. The nightmare just continued in another manner – sadly under actors who did not even cross the minds of Asmara residents. The nightmare had endured to continue wreaking havoc to life in multifaceted aspects.

Simon Kaleab

Selam Ismael,

A great article.

Paulos

Selam Ismail,

This is one great feat of imagination when the rest of us failed to make a vivid connection [as you have brilliantly put it] between the two Lockdowns almost 50 years apart. But I must admit that, at that dreadful year, I had just started grade one at Comboni and I have a vague if not no recollection about that particular day. Growing up however, we remembered it ዓርቢ ምሸት ጊዜ ዕግርግር as a landmark when the city came into a complete halt.

The last time I tried to make a connection was when I watched for the first time the 1982 movie, “Missing”, Jack Lemon staring in it when he played an American dad who goes to Chile in search of his missing journalist son in 1974 during the military coup after the assassination of Salvador Allende. The whole vibe in the movie including the grip of fear in the city was a reminiscent of Asmara in 1974 as I played it imaginatively in my head. Again, well put and thank you for walking us vividly albeit poignantly.